Only six U.S. states genetically sequenced more than 1% of their total coronavirus cases during the pandemic, compared to a national average of just over 0.3%, according to data posted this week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
These states include Hawaii (2.8%), Washington (2.1%), Maine (1.7%), Wyoming (1.6%), Utah (1.5%), and Oregon (1.2 %).
Meanwhile, nearly half of the states have sequenced less than one-tenth of a percent of their confirmed cases – 24 in all.
These are the states that have performed the highest raw number of genetic sequences:
- Texas: More than 15,000
- California: More than 11,000
- New York: About 7,600
Fourteen states each report less than 100 sequences.
These figures are from series in a publicly available database from January 2020 to January 2021 and may not represent the full number of samples analyzed.
U.S. laboratories have submitted 92,000 sequences of the coronavirus – about 0.3% of the total cases – to a genomics database known as GISAID. In comparison, the UK has filed nearly 197,000 cases, just over 5% of the total number of cases.
According to CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the US has stepped up their sequencing efforts and are on track to process at least 7,000 samples per week.
Experts have previously told CNN that the US should strive for sequencing 5% to 10% of cases, in line with UK sequencing efforts. Given cases in the past seven days, this would amount to about 50,000 to 100,000 sequences in a week.