Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what partnerships and support the Government is providing to genomic sequencing centres (a) in Africa and (b) globally to help identify variants of the covid-19 virus.

Public Health England’s (PHE’s) International Health Regulation (IHR) Strengthening Project and the United Kingdom Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) have provided genome sequencing support to Nigeria to independently sequence the virus. The IHR and UK-PHRST continue to provide support, remotely or through in person deployment, to a number of countries around the world.

In addition, PHE IHR and UK-PHRST are exploring opportunities to support Africa Centres for Disease Control’s sequencing strategies. PHE is also providing genome sequencing support to Gibraltar, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.