Testing which variant?

[ExMontpelliérain]

Whole genome sequencing of the virus is very important for a variety of reasons, not just for detection of the omicron variant. These include:

Detection of viral movement.
Distinguishing community transmission from imported strains.
Logging transmission chains.
Assessing intervention methods.
Mutant detection, etc.

As has already been noted, UK is performing a lot of sequencing (the Quadram Institute + UEA, near where I live, is dong more Covid sequencing than all but 4 countries in the world). Cost is no longer an issue as it’s now come down to a little over £50/sample and it’s also rapid (~2 days max).

Talking to some of my former colleagues, the big worry is the possible emergence of a strain that combines the transmissibility of omicron with the effects of the delta variant, making suppression strategies even more important.

[Pachapapa]

My local Hyper has autotests available, prix coutant, today until end of January.
https://www.michel-edouard-leclerc.com/ ... ix-coutant