Rapid Response to SARS-CoV-2 in Aotearoa New Zealand: Implementation of a Diagnostic Test and Characterization of the First COVID-19 Cases in the South Island.
Viruses
; 13(11)2021 11 04.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1518631
ABSTRACT
It has been 20 months since we first heard of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus detected in the Hubei province, China, in December 2019, responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, a myriad of studies aimed at understanding and controlling SARS-CoV-2 have been published at a pace that has outshined the original effort to combat HIV during the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. This massive response started by developing strategies to not only diagnose individual SARS-CoV-2 infections but to monitor the transmission, evolution, and global spread of this new virus. We currently have hundreds of commercial diagnostic tests; however, that was not the case in early 2020, when just a handful of protocols were available, and few whole-genome SARS-CoV-2 sequences had been described. It was mid-January 2020 when several District Health Boards across New Zealand started planning the implementation of diagnostic testing for this emerging virus. Here, we describe our experience implementing a molecular test to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection, adapting the RT-qPCR assay to be used in a random-access platform (Hologic Panther Fusion® System) in a clinical laboratory, and characterizing the first whole-genome SARS-CoV-2 sequences obtained in the South Island, right at the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in New Zealand. We expect that this work will help us and others prepare for the unequivocal risk of similar viral outbreaks in the future.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19 Nucleic Acid Testing
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Oceania
Language:
English
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
V13112222
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