Health authorities in Abu Dhabi have trained medical staff from seven regional countries on sequencing and analysis of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19.

Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre (ADPHC) hosted a two-week-long workshop for staff from regional National Influenza Centres. It was held at the Reference Laboratory for Infectious Disease (Surveillance Laboratory) of Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), part of the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA).

The workshop was organised in partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Ministry of Health (MoH), and the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), and attended by medical staff from Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Libya and Sudan.

Dr Francis Selvaraj, senior research scientist at SKMC, along with Dr Antoine Aboufayad and Dr Rabeh Elshesheny from the WHO, trained the staff on the approved protocol for sequencing SARS-CoV-2 to determine the virus’ lineage and identify emerging mutations and new strains.