Syracuse, N.Y. — Five more laboratories, including one in Syracuse, will help in the search for coronavirus variants in New York.
Until now, the state Health Department’s Wadsworth Center lab has had the main responsibility for analyzing positive Covid-19 samples for variants.
Wadsworth will now partner with five other labs around the state to analyze more samples. The labs are:
- SUNY Molecular Analysis Core at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse
- Virology Laboratory at Cornell University in Ithaca
- Genomics and Bioinformatics Core at the University at Buffalo
- UR Medicine Central Laboratory at the University of Rochester Medical Center
- Genomics Core Laboratory at New York Medical College in Westchester County
Wadsworth will spend $20 million to establish the new partnerships, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office.
The labs all have experience and expertise in performing the tests needed to find variants of the coronavirus. They’ll analyze positive Covid samples from large, multicounty areas outside New York City to look for them, Cuomo’s office said.
In addition to finding new and existing variants, analyzing the samples will help scientists understand Covid better and provide data on the effectiveness of vaccines and treatments.
Covid cases have been rising rapidly in New York since late June. New cases are up nearly fourfold since July 1. Hospitalizations have also started rising again and are back above 500.
The numbers so far remain far below the worst points of the pandemic.
Cuomo yesterday announced a new effort to boost Covid vaccinations in areas with high rates of infection and low numbers of shots. He also said the more contagious delta variant of the coronavirus accounts for over 72% of recent new Covid cases in New York.
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