{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,17]],"date-time":"2026-06-17T02:04:30Z","timestamp":1781661870337,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":9,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,17]],"date-time":"2025-07-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1752710400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001411","name":"Indian Council of Medical Research","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001411","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001411","name":"Indian Council of Medical Research","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001411","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>When the COVID-19\u2019s Delta variant spread globally during late 2020, Public Health Genomics (PHG) capabilities were missing in several cities, significantly impairing the ability of policymakers and public health systems to rapidly identify COVID-19 variants and effectively respond, with tragic human and economic consequences. In this community case study, we retrospectively studied the dire situation during the Delta wave 5\u202fyears ago when we rapidly constituted a transnational public, private, and social, pro-bono alliance to establish PHG capabilities in Mumbai, a mega metropolis that lacked this capacity. The Albright Stonebridge Group\u2014a renowned global commercial diplomacy entity, Illumina\u2014a genomic sequencing equipment leader, a leading Mumbai non-governmental organization\u2014the ATE Chandra Foundation, and the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, came together in an alliance to rapidly establish PHG capabilities in Mumbai. This effort was coordinated across multiple countries, with distributed decision-making and defined responsibilities. An optimal site for a PHG center in Mumbai was identified, and the operational requirements, governance structures, resource and sustainability requirements were defined. In 3\u202fmonths, the Genome Sequencing Centre for Outbreak Preparedness &amp;amp; Epidemiology (GeSCOPE) was successfully established in Mumbai\u2019s public infectious disease hospital, Kasturba. The percentage of samples sequenced increased from less than 1% to over 30%, including all known RT-PCR positive cases, the sequencing time dropped to under 72\u202fh, and public health policy and responses were enhanced. Currently, GeSCOPE has established itself as the epidemiological hub for Mumbai and western India at large, identifying infectious disease threats such as Dengue, Chikungunya, and drug resistance genes in <jats:italic>Mycobacterium tuberculosis<\/jats:italic> strains. This has transformed Mumbai\u2019s ability to expeditiously identify and contain infectious outbreaks, thus better protecting its citizens. Our experience has generalizable lessons that we hope will inform other communities seeking to establish and strengthen their PHG capabilities.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1602152","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,17]],"date-time":"2025-07-17T05:24:46Z","timestamp":1752729886000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Rapid public health genomics capacity building during the COVID-19 Delta crisis driven by a transnational private, public, and social alliance"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Mehul Champaklal","family":"Mehta","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gayatri Nair","family":"Lobo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gretchen","family":"Weightman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Vidushi","family":"Chitalia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jayanthi","family":"Shastri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","article-title":"Where did the Delta variant come from and what will happen next?","volume-title":"National Center Sci Educ","author":"Reid","year":"2021"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"537","DOI":"10.4103\/ijmr.ijmr_1353_21","article-title":"A focus on the spread of the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 in India","volume":"153","author":"Novelli","year":"2021","journal-title":"Indian J Med Res"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"667","DOI":"10.1126\/science.abm5154","article-title":"COVID mortality in India: national survey data and health facility deaths","volume":"375","author":"Jha","year":"2022","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e001179","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjgh-2018-001179","article-title":"Importance of diagnostics in epidemic and pandemic preparedness","volume":"4","author":"Kelly-Cirino","year":"2019","journal-title":"BMJ Glob Health"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"180","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhin.2022.01.024","article-title":"Infection prevention and control insights from a decade of pathogen whole-genome sequencing","volume":"122","author":"Eyre","year":"2022","journal-title":"J Hosp Infect"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.59184\/pb025.01","article-title":"Pandemic preparedness in African countries: status quo and the way forward","author":"Akello","year":"2025"},{"key":"ref7","first-page":"24","article-title":"COVID-19 genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium: final report","volume":"9","author":"Marjanovic","year":"2022","journal-title":"Rand Health Q"},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"rs.3.rs-927070","DOI":"10.21203\/rs.3.rs-927070\/v1","article-title":"Global landscape of SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance, public availability extent of genomic data, and epidemic shaped by variants","volume":"29","author":"Yu","year":"2021","journal-title":"Res Sq"},{"key":"ref9","article-title":"Current Outbreak List, USA.","year":"2025"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Public Health"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1602152\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,23]],"date-time":"2025-07-23T08:22:25Z","timestamp":1753258945000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1602152\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,17]]},"references-count":9,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1602152"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1602152","relation":{},"ISSN":["2296-2565"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2296-2565","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,17]]},"article-number":"1602152"}}