Labs in New York look to ramp up capacity to do more genomic sequencing for COVID-19 variant

Subway riders transfer between lines on a snowy day in New York, U.S., Feb. 1, 2021. (Photo: China News Service / Wang Fan)

Laboratories in New York are trying to ramp up capacity to do more genomic sequencing after public officials repeatedly stressed concerns about the possibility of a highly transmissible COVID-19 variant taking root in the state.

Knowing whether a variant is widespread requires broad and regular genomic sequencing, a Wall Street Journal article said, adding that laboratories in New York are trying to ramp up capacity to do more genomic sequencing, to look at both the whole genome of the coronavirus and specifically at the most important surface protein that indicates whether it is a variant.

Genomic sequencing of positive COVID-19 samples in New York is primarily carried out by public laboratories for the state and New York City and by several academic medical centers. The number of sequences performed in a week across the state is not tracked in one place.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 42 people in New York state have been found to carry a variant first detected in Britain as of Sunday, and no resident has been found with the variants first detected in South Africa and Brazil.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a press conference on Monday that the variants caused growing uncertainty.

"Overall, on COVID the numbers are coming down," he said. "The only question mark, what is a potential problem, is one of these strains."

As of Tuesday morning, the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University reported 43,805 coronavirus deaths in New York State, the worst in the country.