On-island facility to detect Covid variants is planned
CREATING a local sequencing facility to detect Covid-19 variants is proposed in the Bailiwick blueprint.
Sequencing variants would enable rapid identification, rather than waiting for more than a fortnight for results to return from the UK.
As the Bailiwick moves towards living with the virus as an endemic, rather than a pandemic, detecting variants would help to monitor the situation in real time.
Implementing this sequencing facility is said in the blueprint to be ‘technically feasible and is likely to be cost-effective as it may prevent unnecessary restrictions having to be put in place, the most extreme of which is another lockdown’.
Variants of particular concern would have qualities which enhance morbidity and mortality, reduce vaccination sensitivity, have a higher transmissibility or a combination of all.
Removing border restrictions is the ultimate aim of the blueprint, but is being done cautiously as advised by the European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control.
Opening borders also depends on whether variants of concern arise in other countries or regions, and whether vaccines remain effective against newly circulating variants.
Detecting variants rapidly would help to inform Public Health’s response should any other variant be identified locally, allowing a targeted approach in re-instating restrictions.
It would also benefit the contact tracing team by providing a case linking to better understand spread.
