The technology,known as Nanopore,was used last week to determine within a day thata cleaner at a quarantine hotel had caught an overseas variant of the virus. Previously,genome sequencing of an infection has taken two to three days.
"If you want to know what the whole sequence of the virus is you will need to wait a couple of days,but if you just want to know where it sits with other viruses in the world,you can have that same day or even within a few hours,"said Professor Bill Rawlinson,senior medical virologist at NSW Health Pathology’s Prince of Wales lab.
The quick discovery that the woman had likely not caught the virus in the community provided relief for contact tracers,Professor Rawlinson said.
Further testing using the established"shotgun sequencing"method of genome sequencing and other inquiries led health authorities to deduce her infection was from US airline crew staying at the hotel.
Genome sequencing is a process of mapping changes in a virus,to determine where it was acquired.
The technique was used to link the Crossroads Hotel outbreak in south-west Sydney to cases in Victoria and a recent string of cases in Adelaide to a returned traveller from the UK staying at a quarantine hotel.