Optimizing the Illumina COVIDSeq laboratorial and bioinformatics pipeline on thousands of samples for SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern tracking

The SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern tracking via Whole Genome Sequencing represents a pillar of public health measures for the containment of the pandemic. The ability to track down the lineage distribution on a local and global scale leads to a better understanding of immune escape and to adopting interventions to contain novel outbreaks. This scenario poses a challenge for NGS laboratories worldwide that are pressed to have both a faster …