Sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 virus genome for the monitoring and management of the Covid-19 epidemic in Andalusia and the rapid generation of prognostic and response to treatment biomarkers

The differences in the spread, severity of symptoms, mortality and other characteristics of COVID-19 are due to a combination of epidemiological factors, although it is expected that the genetics of the virus will play a very important role, which is still completely unknown.A consortium, made up of 14 hospitals and 5 Health Research Institutes from the region, the Technical Office for Information Management, the Regional Management of Public Health (Epidemiological Surveillance and Occupational Health Service) and the Fundación Progreso y Salud, intends to use the network of diagnostic centers of the Andalusian community and the sequencing platforms of the Health Research Institutes and associated centers, to sequence during 2020 about 1,000 samples of the SARS-CoV-2 virus covering the whole of Andalusia obtained from different type of patients (age, sex, previous complications, previous treatments), as well as different clinical profiles observed and responses to treatments.The genomic data associated with these clinical data, which can be enriched with information from the Andalusian Population Health database, will be used to quickly obtain diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers.For further information, visit https://www.clinbioinfosspa.es/projects/covseq/indexEng.html