A response playbook for early detection and population surveillance of new SARS-CoV-2 variants in a regional public health laboratory.

The genomic surveillance response playbook provides a structured, stepwise, and data-driven approach to responding to emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. These pre-defined processes can serve as a template for other genomic surveillance programs to streamline workflows and expedite the detection and public health response to emerging variants. Based on the processes piloted during the Omicron BA.1 response, this method has been applied to subsequent Omicron subvariants and can be readily applied to future SARS-CoV-2 emerging variants and other public health surveillance activities.