Microbiology

ECDC continued to provide technical support to public health reference laboratory networks across the EU/EEA and to enlargement countries, also taking into account the activities of WHO’s network of reference laboratories. These activities included External Quality Assessment (EQA) exercises, training and other capacity-building activities.

ECDC continued to coordinate the European Reference Laboratory Network for TB (ERLTB-Net) and, together with the implementing consortium, the Agency organised a network meeting, external quality assessment, and capacitybuilding activities. An external quality assessment was also carried out for gonorrhoeal antimicrobial resistance with Member States’ national reference laboratories and the report published with the results for 2021.

The Centre continued to help develop rapid communication of laboratory-based information for surveillance and alert, and support Member States in strengthening their microbiology capacity, based on gaps identified by the EULabCap indicators and EQA schemes.

ECDC also offered needs-based sequencing support to Member States that have not yet fully transitioned to WGSbased surveillance.

During 2022, ECDC offered high-capacity sequencing support to Member States to enhance their immediate capacity to detect and monitor SARS-CoV-2 variants under the EU bio-defence preparedness plan against SARS-CoV-2 variants. ECDC and the European Commission are continuing to provide EU/EEA Member States and Western Balkan countries with access to outsourced whole genome sequencing services for SARS-CoV-2 samples. More than 110 000 samples from 12 EU/EEA Member States and three Western Balkan countries were processed between January and December 2022. Timely and secure WGS data sharing and storage are facilitated by customised, protected workspaces for WGS data management.