Genomic surveillance during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic - country experience and lessons learned from Türkiye.

Background: Türkiye confirmed its first case of SARS-CoV-2 on March 11, 2020, coinciding with the declaration of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, Türkiye swiftly increased testing capacity and implemented genomic sequencing in 2020. This paper describes Türkiye's journey of establishing genomic surveillance as a middle-income country with limited prior sequencing capacity and analyses sequencing data from the first two years of the pandemic.

Investing in health preparedness, response and resilience: a genomics costing tool focused on next generation sequencing.

The world has seen unprecedented gains in the global genomic surveillance capacities for pathogens with pandemic and epidemic potential within the last 4 years. To strengthen and sustain the gains made, WHO is working with countries and partners to implement the Global Genomic Surveillance Strategy for Pathogens with Pandemic and Epidemic Potential 2022-2032. A key technical product developed through these multi-agency collaborative efforts is a genomics costing tool (GCT), as sought by many countries.

Strengthening pathogen genomic surveillance for health emergencies: insights from the World Health Organization's regional initiatives.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a rapid scale-up in the use of genomic surveillance as a pandemic preparedness and response tool. As a result, the number of countries with in-country SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequencing capability increased by 40% from February 2021 to July 2022. The Global Genomic Surveillance Strategy for Pathogens with Pandemic and Epidemic Potential 2022-2032 was launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2022 to bring greater coherence to ongoing work to strengthen genomic surveillance.