High-Throughput Adaptable SARS-CoV-2 Screening for Rapid Identification of Dominant and Emerging Regional Variants

Emerging severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant strains can be associated with increased transmissibility, more severe disease, and reduced effectiveness of treatments. To improve the availability of regional variant surveillance, we describe a variant genotyping system that is rapid, accurate, adaptable, and able to detect new low-level variants built with existing hospital infrastructure.

We used a tiered high-throughput SARS-CoV-2 screening program to characterize variants in a supraregional health system over 76 days. Combining targeted reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and selective sequencing, we screened SARS-CoV-2 reactive samples from all hospitals within our health care system for genotyping dominant and emerging variants.

The median turnaround for genotyping was 2 days using the high-throughput RT-PCR-based screen, allowing us to rapidly characterize the emerging Delta variant. In our population, the Delta variant is associated with a lower cycle threshold value, lower age at infection, and increased vaccine-breakthrough cases. Detection of low-level and potentially emerging variants highlights the utility of a tiered approach.

These findings underscore the need for fast, low-cost, high-throughput monitoring of regional viral sequences as the pandemic unfolds and the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants increases. Combining RT-PCR-based screening with selective sequencing allows for rapid genotyping of variants and dynamic system improvement.