CoViNet - short for
CoronaVirus Network - is an international research network aimed at the early detection, analysis, and monitoring of coronaviruses worldwide. Established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and already deployed in 20 countries, CoViNet members met on March 26 and 27 in Geneva to define the priority strategic axes and coordinate their action.
The COVID-19 crisis, with its 7 million deaths worldwide, has underscored the importance of early detection for the effective implementation of public health policies. It has thrust the term "coronavirus" into everyday vocabulary, but SARS-CoV-2 is far from the only threat to human beings in this family.
Launched at the beginning of 2024, the WHO's
CoronaVirus Network (CoViNet) aims to detect, monitor, and conduct comprehensive genetic analyses of coronaviruses and their variants, in both humans and animals.
Currently being deployed in over
20 countries across five continents, it seeks to enhance risk assessment, information sharing, and preventive measures against emerging or already circulating coronaviruses. Its work will inform the actions of WHO as well as national and global policy-making.
The CoViNet network follows on from the "reference laboratories" designated by the WHO from 2020, which included the UNIGE and HUG Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases in 2023. Their initial mission was to provide testing for countries with limited or no capabilities in this area.
Since then, the necessity of monitoring the evolution of the virus and its variants has become imperative, along with an expansion of these laboratories' objectives to include animal health and environmental surveillance. To create this new network of laboratories, a CoViNet application call was issued by the WHO in the autumn of 2023.