Only six U.S. states have genetically sequenced more than 1% of total coronavirus cases during the pandemic, compared with a national average of just over 0.3%, according to data published this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. USA diseases.
These states include Hawaii (2.8%), Washington (2.1%), Maine (1.7%), Wyoming (1.6%), Utah (1.5%) and Oregon (1.2%) .
Meanwhile, almost half of the states have sequenced less than one tenth of one percent of confirmed cases – 24 in total.
These are the states that performed the highest gross number of genetic sequences:
- Texas: More than 15,000
- California: More than 11,000
- New York: About 7,600
Fourteen states report less than 100 strings each.
These numbers come from strings in a publicly accessible database from January 2020 to January 2021 and may not represent the total number of samples that were analyzed.
US laboratories have submitted 92,000 coronavirus sequences – about 0.3% of the total cases – to a genomic database known as GISAID. In comparison, the UK had almost 197,000 – just over 5% of total cases.
The United States has stepped up its sequencing efforts and is on track to process at least 7,000 samples a week, according to CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.
Experts previously told CNN that the U.S. should aim to sequence 5% to 10% of cases, in line with the UK’s sequencing efforts. Given the cases of the past seven days, this would amount to about 50,000 to 100,000 sequences in one week.