EvolCovid

Title: Integrating clinical and waste-water sequencing for deciphering the next evolutionary steps of SARS-CoV-2 (EvolCovid)

Research group: PatoGenOmica Bacteriana

In Spain, genomic surveillance of clinical cases is centered in reporting known mutations and variants of concern, and it is rarely integrated with environmental surveillance, limiting the power to detect new mutations and variants circulating. After successful campaigns of vaccination and the increase of people infected by SARS-CoV-2 during summer 2022, we are currently in a new phase in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Spain. Consequently, last week of October, national SARS-CoV-2 variant surveillance has shifted to a flu-like scheme, where only a random sampling of three cases per primary care center are tested for SARS-CoV-2 and sequenced. The new epidemiologic situation requires additional efforts to characterise the virus circulating and evaluate surveillance programs in order to ensure an efficient use of resources. Moreover, although the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 led to less virulent SARS-CoV-2 variants, the different immune status of the population and the change in surveillance effort could impact viral evolutionary dynamics.

Grant CNS2022-135116 funded by MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR