Genomic Surveillance program for SARS-CoV-2: Consortium of India and Sri Lanka

The global challenges posed by COVID-19 are best tackled through global cooperation between researchers, clinicians and funding agencies. One such challenge is generating timely, high-resolution monitoring of the SARS-CoV-2 viral evolution and using such data to guide public health response in a timely manner. The discovery of current variants of concern (VOC) in UK, South Africa and Brazil is because of a high quality sequencing program (UK) or vaccination related investigations (South Africa, Brazil). Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia (INSACOG) is revealing the possibility of local VOC driving fresh outbreaks. We proposes a network of satellite genomic sequencing MicroLabs in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka that will be integrated by virtual cloud-based workflows as well as physical linkages to national MegaLabs for quality assurance and operational support. This would help scale up global monitoring of emerging SARS-CoV-2 strains in one of the world's most populous region and guide global R&D efforts for COVID-19 diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics. Given the relevance of SARS-CoV-2 surveillance to especially the diagnostics and health systems pillars of WHO's ACT- Accelerator, partners such as Wellcome Trust can play an important role in furthering this effort. There is an urgent need to create distributed local capacity via MicroLab hubs.