Jordanian researchers sequence 23 COVID-19 virus samples, hitting milestone in Kingdom’s fight against virus

AMMAN — Biolab Diagnostic Laboratories has published the full genomic sequences of 23 samples of COVID-19 isolated from Jordanian patients in Amman and Irbid, setting “a new milestone” in Jordan’s fight against COVID-19.

According to a statement from Biolab, the sequences were published on the database of the Global Initiative on Publishing All Influenza Data and were made freely available to the global scientific community.

This effort has put Jordan on the map of COVID-19 genomic epidemiology, making the Kingdom one of a few Arab nations to make such an achievement, the statement said.

“To us, it was a national duty and scientific priority to fully sequence as many strains of SARS-CoV2 from Jordan as possible, and make it available to the scientists out there in the fields of epidemiology, diagnostics, treatment and prophylaxis,” said Issa Abu Dayyeh, head of the research department at Biolab, who led the scientific team in Jordan in collaborating with the Andersen laboratory at the Scripps Research Institute in the United States.

Preliminary results of the viral sequences obtained have helped scientists understand the route and relative timeframe in which the virus travelled in order to enter the Kingdom, indicating that the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy and Spain were among the countries from which the virus entered Jordan, the statement said.

Amid Abdelnour, founder and CEO of Biolab Diagnostic Laboratories, emphasised the importance of the findings, which come as “a product of his unconditional support to research and development in the internationally accredited chain of laboratories”, which was founded in 2001.

Biolab will continue collaborating with all parties to expand this database to help contain the coronavirus pandemic locally and worldwide, he said in the statement.