Medical researchers and supercomputers are looking to find the novel coronavirus itself within blood samples from thousands of infected patients
This translation has been automatically generated and has not been verified for accuracy.For the last four months, Canada’s public health experts have been racing to stop the spread of COVID-19 by trying to figure out how everyone is getting it, and whom they may have given it to.
“This is the big effort over the next four weeks,” said Andrew McArthur, director of the biomedical discovery and commercialization program at McMaster University. It means, for example, a long-term care centre should be able to quickly know if its 10 new cases are because one case spread widely or arose from multiple carriers coming into the facility.It also means that maybe, just maybe, the second COVID-19 wave most think is coming won’t be as bad, or as hard to control, as the first, because the sources can be isolated very quickly.“A second wave is likely,” McArthur said.
But there are enough subtle changes still happening among the 28,000 individual markers that make up a genome for SARS-CoV-2 that cases can be traced backward and linked to the ones that came before. McArthur said it takes a lot of data storage, a lot of high-capacity computer analysis, and a lot of money, to run the comparisons among them all.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Coronavirus: Genetic detectives to begin tracing spread of COVID-19 in CanadaMedical researchers are using supercomputers to turn genetics labs into detective agencies and starting the work to figure out how almost every case in Canada arose.
Read more »
Manitoba’s job numbers rebounding from COVID-19 pandemic: Statistics CanadaManitoba Finance Minister Scott Fielding says the government is willing to look at changing some of its aid programs to help those who haven’t been able to return to work
Read more »
Eight COVID-19 cases linked to Canada Day gatherings in Kelowna, B.C.Officials urge anyone who took part in such gatherings to closely monitor for symptoms
Read more »
U.S. troops in Winnipeg face hostility over COVID-19 fearsA string of hostile incidents in Winnipeg, which included two cars with U.S. licence plates being keyed, has some United States Air Force members stationed in the city speaking out.
Read more »
Hospitals in Syria’s rebel-held area reduce services after first COVID-19 case reportedThere have been major concerns of an outbreak in northwestern Syria, an area packed with more than 3 million people, many of them living in tents and encampments, and where health facilities have been devastated by a long civil war
Read more »