On Monday, Ginkgo Bioworks and XWELL announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States will be broadening its surveillance program for travelers to also encompass the testing of respiratory viruses.

The increase will occur at four of the seven airports involved before the autumn and winter seasons in the US, when respiratory viruses like influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) tend to spread more frequently.

The CDC has cautioned that it anticipates hospitalizations for COVID-19, RSV, and flu to be comparable to last year’s figures, which are higher than the levels before the pandemic.

Ginkgo and XWELL have announced their intention to oversee more than 30 novel viruses, bacteria, and antimicrobial resistance targets, including common respiratory illnesses like influenza A and B, RSV, and SARS-CoV-2, as part of their expansion efforts.

The expansion will begin at four airports in the United States: John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, San Francisco International Airport, Boston Logan International Airport, and Washington Dulles International Airport.

The monitoring system is a collaboration between the government health organization, Ginkgo’s biosecurity and public health unit, Concentric, and XWELL’s diagnostic testing service, XpresCheck.

The organization performs voluntary nasal swabbing and samples airport wastewater as a part of the program, with the goal of aiding in the early detection of new strains of SARS-CoV-2 and other harmful microorganisms.

Source: voanews.com