Serological tools for COVID-19 control and vaccine roll-out in Southeast Asia

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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has caused immeasurable burden on economies and public health globally, including in Asia. New diagnostics for detecting the present and past exposure to the virus have been developed, and vaccines are emerging for clinical evaluation and roll-out. As the number of cases plateau, the exit strategy of Governments will involve the use of surveillance and contact tracing to limit the damage of future sporadic outbreaks in the short to medium term, while vaccination will ideally lead to elimination. However, many of the tests and vaccines under evaluation are based on the same biological targets, and infection control activities will need to distinguish immune responses to vaccines and those elicited by SARS-CoV-2 infection, which cannot yet be achieved with current front-line rapid testing kits. With this in mind, we propose to investigate alternative immunological targets arising from LSHTM modelling, informatic tools and laboratory work. These targets will be assessed within ongoing collaborations with government research institutes and hospitals in Thailand and The Philippines, who are at the forefront of clinical management and infection control in the COVID-19 response. These sites have pre-existing biological samples and data collected for diagnosis and treatment that will be used in the proposed project. We will evaluate new biological targets and establish assays that can be implemented by these countries to assist a surveillance system to monitor the progress of vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 elimination in the community. This will provide vital data for the direction of vaccine rollout and containment strategy. Most importantly, the tools developed can be easily implemented across other LMIC countries with a minimal laboratory set-up. With this, our goal, is to make a lasting contribution to Southeast Asian COVID-19 surveillance infrastructure, thereby improving the health and economy of the nations.