The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans to spend $1.7 billion to bolster their ability to monitor and track emerging disease threats – including SARS-CoV-2 variants using genomic sequencing, announced the White House in a COVID-19 task force briefing.
Right now, these variants account for nearly half of all COVID-19 cases in the United States, and more capacity in our public health system is needed to identify and track these mutations. State and local public health departments are on the frontlines of beating back the pandemic, but more capacity is needed to detect these variants early on before dangerous outbreaks. This funding will enable CDC and states to do more genomic sequencing as we activate the nation’s great research capabilities to detect variants earlier and increase our visibility into emerging threats. This investment will give public health officials the chance to react more quickly to prevent and stop the spread.
The CDC data show that the B117 variant — the variant originally identified in the United Kingdom — represents 44% of the virus circulating during the week of March 27th. The prevalence of B117 since that time is certainly higher, and new data is expected soon. The emergence of variants underscores the critical need for rapid and ongoing genomic surveillance. CDC has been acting on multiple fronts to increase our sequencing efforts in the United States to detect variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, and recently began receiving the sequence data from seven additional large commercial laboratories.
“What we call surveillance — our ability to spot variants as they emerge and spread — is vital, particularly as we aim to get ahead of dangerous variances before they emerge, as they are in the Midwest right now,” said Andy Slavitt, White House Senior Advisor on COVID-19 Response. “Right now, these variants account for nearly half of all COVID-19 cases in the United States, and we need more capacity in our public health system to identify and track these mutations.
The funds – which were allocated in the American Rescue Plan that was signed into law last month – is in addition to $200 million the government allocated earlier this year to increase genomic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2. The CDC will use the money to pay for equipment, supplies, training, staffing, and electronic infrastructure for the CDC and state and local health departments.
“State and local public health departments are on the frontlines of beating back the pandemic, but they need more capacity to detect these variants early on before dangerous outbreaks,” Slavitt said.
Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, Director of the CDC, noted that $300 million of the funds will be used to establish six Centers of Excellence in Genomic Epidemiology. The centers will operate “as partnerships between state health departments and academic institutions, and today’s funding will fuel cutting-edge research into genomic epidemiology. In this work, we will build our public health capacity to respond not just to COVID-19, but to future concerning emerging threats to public health.”
