CoViNet aims to coordinate global coronavirus detection, monitoring and assessment capabilities.
• Photo: Kathleen Flynn/ Reuters
Covid-19 testing laboratory
The World Health Organization (WHO) launched, this Wednesday, a new network of laboratories to coordinate global capabilities for detecting, monitoring and evaluating potentially new or circulating coronaviruses with an impact on public health.
The new network, called CoViNet, expands the WHO’s network of reference laboratories for SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus at the origin of the covid-19 pandemic) that was established in January 2020.
According to a statement from the WHO, CoViNet currently includes 36 laboratories from 21 countries across the organization’s six regions – Europe, the Americas, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific.
Representatives from the laboratories met today and on Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, to finalize an action plan for 2024-2025 that allows WHO Member States to be better prepared for early detection, risk assessment and response to health challenges related to coronaviruses.
The data generated by CoViNet will guide the work of WHO technical groups on virus evolution and vaccine composition.
Tags: launches laboratory network Covid19 World
