News

Led by The Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) located at the Doherty Institute, the Institute is joining laboratories from across the globe to better detect, understand, monitor and respond to coronaviruses of public health importance, such as SARS, SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV and emerging novel coronaviruses.

Comprising of 36 laboratories from 21 countries, the WHO laboratory network for coronaviruses, named CoViNet, aims to promote global cooperation in early virus detection, monitoring virus changes, risk assessment to inform policies, strengthen laboratory capacities worldwide and enhance response to coronavirus-related health challenges. A special focus will be on supporting countries with fewer resources.

The Doherty Institute will be essential to support the ongoing risk assessments conducted by the WHO Technical Advisory Group for Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) and the ongoing independent assessments of the Technical Advisory Group for COVID-19 vaccine composition (TAG-CO-VAC) on the implications of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants on COVID-19 vaccine composition.

The Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Dr Chuan Kok Lim, Acting Director at VIDRL, said the WHO’s invitation to join the network is a testament to the Institute’s capabilities to track emerging viruses.  

“The Doherty Institute has proven its expertise in assessing the accuracy of coronavirus diagnostics, investigating the ability of coronaviruses to evade immune responses, evaluating their pathogenicity, and determining their susceptibility to existing treatments,” said Dr Lim.

In 2020, the Doherty Institute was the first laboratory to grow SARS-CoV-2 from a patient sample outside of China, contributing to the accurate global investigation and diagnosis of the virus.

“As part of CoViNet, we are eager to share our expertise in adopting a One Health approach that combines clinical, environmental and animal surveillance within a single laboratory site, offering comprehensive monitoring,” he added.

Laboratory representatives from around the world met in Geneva in March 2024 to finalise an action plan for this year and the next. Dr Lim co-chaired a session on laboratory capacity building and presented the Institute’s work on the feasibility of detecting non-SARS-CoV-2 respiratory viruses and conducting whole genome sequencing (WGS) directly from used COVID-19 rapid antigen test (RAT) devices.

The acting Director of WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, said coronaviruses have shown their potential to cause epidemics and pandemics.

“We thank our partners from around the world who are working to better understand high-threat coronaviruses like SARS, MERS and COVID-19 and to detect novel coronaviruses,” said Dr Van Kerkhove.

The WHO launched the WHO SARS-CoV-2 Reference Laboratory Network in January 2020 to support countries with limited testing capabilities for COVID-19. Over time, as the pandemic evolved, the network's role expanded to include monitoring virus mutations and the spread of variants. Recognising the need for a broader approach, WHO has now upgraded this initiative to CoViNet, aimed at the surveillance of all coronaviruses threatening human health.

Learn more about CoViNet here.