The Biden administration has announced that the US is setting up a $1.7 billion national network to identify and track worrisome coronavirus mutations whose spread could trigger another pandemic wave, AP reports.

White House officials unveiled a strategy that features three components: a major funding boost for the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and state health departments to ramp up gene-mapping of coronavirus samples; the creation of six “centres of excellence” partnerships with universities to conduct research and develop technologies for gene-based surveillance of pathogens; and building a data system to better share and analyse information on emerging disease threats, so the knowledge can be turned into action.

The new effort, which relies on money approved by Congress as part of President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package, aims to break what experts say is a feast-or-famine cycle in US preparedness for biological threats, of which the coronavirus is only one example.

Read more here.