On Jun. 5, 2020, to jumpstart the Department of Defense’s (DoD) SARS-CoV-2 sequencing efforts, Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branchﾒs Global Emerging Infections Surveillance (GEIS) section used its existing partnerships with Army, Navy, and Air Force public health and medical research laboratories.

This connection helped to establish a collaborative approach to the sequencing capabilities. Sequence data from this collaboration will provide critical information about transmission patterns, track diagnostic effectiveness, and guide the development and evaluation of medical countermeasures for the 1.4 million active duty and 331,000 reserve personnel.