Tackling the COVID-19 pandemic by utilizing next generation sequencing technologies

The COVID-19 outbreak caused by SARS-CoV-2 has led to major socio-economic disruption worldwide and the pandemic has yet to secede after more than 18 months. As of November 2021, SARS-CoV-2 has infected over 251 million people and caused over 5 million deaths worldwide. The discovery of aggressive variants of the virus has shown that monitoring for variants associated with changes to infection outcome and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is critical to ensure the success of vaccination programs and establish robust public health responses.