 Genomic sequencing is the technology that allows us to know the information on the DNA of a particular sample, in this case a virus. Genomic surveillance is how we translate that data with epidemiological data into knowledge. My name is Sonja Goncalves and I am responsible for the delivery of the genomic surveillance service for COVID operations at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Genomic surveillance is important because it helps us understand what is happening in the population of a virus. Without genomic surveillance we are going a bit blind because we don't know what is happening and what is for example the cause of an increase of cases or a decrease of cases. From the beginning of the pandemic we were looking at specific use cases. For example, how was the virus being introduced in the country, how the virus was spreading within the UK and how could we control outbreaks by using the genomic surveillance data. More recently we are more focused on the identification of the variants of concern. A variant of concern is when a mutation or a group of mutation is associated with a difference on how the virus behaves. For example, if that specific variant has increased transmissibility or if that specific variant has an impact on the immune response. Here at Sanger we receive between 400,000 and 500,000 positive and negative samples in a week and we sequence at the moment around 20,000 samples per week. From the genomic surveillance point of view, as soon as a variant of concern is detected this information is then provided to the public health agencies that use that information to contain the spread of those variants. So the genomic data that is generated through the genomic surveillance operations is immediately shared at a national level, at international level. The sharing of the data in a pandemic is absolutely fundamental on how we control the pandemic because a variant of concern appearing in one part of the world affects the whole world. The activities of genomic surveillance with COVID have been an incredible learning experience. We are still learning as we go and we will still be learning even after the pandemic ends and looking back and learning for all the data that was generated during the pandemic. But I think we have built the resources, we have built the infrastructure, we have built the analytical methods so we will be better prepared to respond to future pandemics.