Biden administration to invest $1.7bn to fight COVID-19 variants

Money will go to genomic sequencing, research centres for genomic epidemiology and a national bioinformatics network.

The United States will invest $1.7bn to help states and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fight COVID-19 variants that are spreading rapidly across the US. The investment is part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” and will improve detection, monitoring and mitigation of these variants by scaling up genomic sequencing efforts, the White House said on Friday. “The original strain of COVID-19 comprises only about half of all cases in America today. New and potentially dangerous strains of the virus make up the other half,” the White House said in a statement.