On Friday 13 January, the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) published practical guidance for Member States of the European Union and the European Economic Area wishing to implement a pilot study for the targeted genomic monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 at selected international points of entry as part of the European response to the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in China (see EUROPE 13097/12).
ECDC recalls that the rapid detection and characterisation of SARS-CoV-2 variants is essential for risk assessment and for limiting the impact of the virus (by strengthening vaccination programmes or updating vaccine composition and adjusting or implementing non-pharmaceutical measures, if necessary).
The ‘ECDC guidance for representative and targeted genomic SARS-CoV-2 monitoring’ remains the basis for variant surveillance in the EU/EEA.
This targeted surveillance of travellers will be complementary to wastewater surveillance activities.
ECDC points out that this type of surveillance has certain limitations, such as sampling bias.
ECDC believes that the sampling and sequencing of positive samples from primary and secondary care sentinel systems in Member States remains the most effective means of monitoring the evolution of the virus in the EU/EEA, in line with the operational considerations for respiratory virus surveillance in Europe published with the World Health Organization (see EUROPE 12995/22).
More information: https://aeur.eu/f/4vv (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)