Read more: How to Stay Safe from COVID-19 During the 2022 Holiday SeasonīQ.1 appeared in a single pooled sample-these pools typically include 10 to 25 swabs. Those numbers are now part of the CDC’s COVID-19 Data Tracker, in a section devoted to genomic surveillance of travelers. suggesting that variant may become one to watch this winter. CDC scientists then began learning more about its features to determine how it compared to previous variants when it came to virulence and transmissibility.īQ.1 numbers began to rise, and as of the beginning of October, the variant accounted for about 17% of samples among travelers entering the U.S. The group reports all new mutations it finds to the public database on SARS-CoV-2 genes, GISAID, and the team’s report on BQ.1 was the first to identify the variant. New mutations don’t necessarily mean a new variant that could either spread more easily or be more virulent, but it’s a heads up. The program was also among the first to pick up other variants that are becoming important ones to watch this winter, including BA.2.75.2, XBB, and BQ.1.Īt the end of August, Cindy Friedman, the CDC’s chief of traveler’s health received a call from a member of her team alerting her to a new mutation, eventually labeled BQ.1, which at the time was on the verge of quickly spreading in Europe. That’s how CDC scientists were first alerted to BA.3, which appeared in an airport sample on December 3,-the first such report in North America, 43 days before any other testing site-and BA.2, which showed up among passengers on December 14, seven days ahead of other reports. Read more: From Massages to Nasal Swabs: Inside XpresSpa’s Tough Road to Becoming an Airport COVID-19 Testing Center The information is vital for CDC scientists, serving as an early detection system for detecting which new variants are entering the country and could present a threat in the future. When Ginkgo’s labs detect new changes to the virus, they alert the CDC and scientists keep a closer eye on changing trends in those mutations. Since the program began as a pilot in September 2021, about 12,000 to 15,000 passengers each week have agreed to get their noses swabbed at XpresCheck locations at the airports, and those samples have been pooled together and sent to Ginkgo’s technicians, who run PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2 and genetically sequence only those samples that are positive.
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