Logical Analysis Report

Key Focus

The thing that helps us is that in Australia, most cases are linked back, through one or a few generations of transmission, to the virus imported from all around the world by returning travellers, Bowden said.
If all we had was community spread from a single source introduction it is unlikely we would be able to tell the different clusters apart.
While governments around the world, including the UK, are working with local research teams on genomic sequencing programs, Victoria's genomics regime has been at the forefront of the effort to contain its second wave of Covid-19.
On 18 August, at a parliamentary inquiry into Victoria's hotel quarantine regime, Dr Charles Alpren, an epidemiologist with the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, said genomic sequencing had shown that 90% or more of the state's current Covid-19 cases could be linked back to an outbreak from a single family.
He said genomic sequencing was able to link 14 of 17 cases in an outbreak at a quarantine hotel for returned Australians the Rydges Hotel in Melbourne's CBD to a family of four that returned to Australia on 9 May.
Alpren said this family, and three other returning travellers who quarantined in another Melbourne hotel the Stamford Plaza were likely together responsible for approximately 99% of current cases of Covid-19 cases in Victoria.
Benjamin Howden, who leads the public health epidemiology team at Melbourne University's Doherty Institute, is currently working with state authorities to use genomic sequencing to track Covid-19 cases.
He said bioinformaticians, who apply information technology to biological and medical research, gathered each patient's genome data and compared it against other patients in the state.
A genomic epidemiologist then matched the historical data of each strand recorded to the patient that provided the sample.
Matching the genomic findings to epidemiological information means authorities can tell if a new patient caught a virus from a known source of the virus, and can work to identify the point or person of transmission.
It also means authorities can divert resources more urgently into understanding and containing a case if genomic testing shows someone has caught a strain previously only recorded in a different geographic area.
In the case of the superspreader, the genomic data of all of the patients infected by them would have very few variations
Evidence from genomic sequencing is expected to influence the state's future quarantine policy.
Here's what you need to know about genomic sequencing.
Genomic sequencing analyses the virus sample taken from a diagnosed patient and compares it with other cases.
Prior to Covid-19, genomic sequencing has been used in Australia to trace the source of outbreaks of food-borne bacteria and hospital infections.
After a Covid-19 test (which gathers saliva from the back of the throat and nose) returns a positive result, the swab used goes through several steps to separate the RNA molecules from mucus proteins so they can be captured, then converted into DNA that can be read.
As a virus passes from human to human, the virus changes slightly