US catching up detecting coronavirus mutations

Health experts say the US is behind in detecting dangerous coronavirus mutations but trying to catch up.President Joe Biden is proposing a 1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that calls for boosting federal spending on sequencing of the virus.Viruses mutate constantly.

Health experts say the US is behind in detecting dangerous coronavirus mutations but trying to catch up.

President Joe Biden is proposing a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that calls for boosting federal spending on sequencing of the virus.

Viruses mutate constantly. Less than 1% of positive specimens in the U.S. are being sequenced to determine whether they have mutations. Other countries do better — Britain sequences about 10%.

After the slow start, public health labs in at least 33 states are doing genetic analysis to identify emerging coronavirus variants. The CDC believes 5,000 to 10,000 samples should be analyzed weekly in the U.S. to adequately monitor variants, said Gregory Armstrong, who oversees the agency's advanced molecular detection work. The nation is now hitting that level, he says.