Two Years of Genomic Surveillance in Belgium during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic to Attain Country-Wide Coverage and Monitor the Introduction and Spread of Emerging Variants.

Cuypers, Lize Dellicour, Simon Hong, Samuel L Potter, Barney I Verhasselt, Bruno Vereecke, Nick Lambrechts, Laurens Durkin, Keith Bours, Vincent Klamer, Sofieke Bayon-Vicente, Guillaume Vael, Carl Ariën, Kevin K De Mendonca, Ricardo Soetens, Oriane Michel, Charlotte Bearzatto, Bertrand Naesens, Reinout Gras, Jeremie Vankeerberghen, Anne Matheeussen, Veerle Martens, Geert Obbels, Dagmar Lemmens, Ann Van den Poel, Bea Van Even, Ellen De Rauw, Klara Waumans, Luc Reynders, Marijke Degosserie, Jonathan [UCL] COVID-19 Genomics Belgium Consortium Maes, Piet André, Emmanuel Baele, Guy et al.[show all]

An adequate SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance strategy has proven to be essential for countries to obtain a thorough understanding of the variants and lineages being imported and successfully established within their borders. During 2020, genomic surveillance in Belgium was not structurally implemented but performed by individual research laboratories that had to acquire the necessary funds themselves to perform this important task. At the start of 2021, a nationwide genomic surveillance consortium was established in Belgium to markedly increase the country's genomic sequencing efforts (both in terms of intensity and representativeness), to perform quality control among participating laboratories, and to enable coordination and collaboration of research projects and publications. We here discuss the genomic surveillance efforts in Belgium before and after the establishment of its genomic sequencing consortium, provide an overview of the specifics of the consortium, and explore more details regarding the scientific studies that have been published as a result of the increased number of Belgian SARS-CoV-2 genomes that have become available.