To mitigate the impact of future variants, the world needs to establish and strengthen virus monitoring and surveillance systems that can identify emerging variants quickly so that leaders can respond.

Here’s how it works: Scientists regularly get samples of the virus from people who are infected and sequence those samples. This helps scientists pick up on notable changes in the virus. Spikes in cases in certain areas can also alert scientists to look deeper. When researchers find something notable, they can alert colleagues for further study.

Networks of laboratories worldwide should be equipped to study the properties of any new variant to assess its potential impact on available tests, vaccines’ effectiveness and treatments.

Scientists in South Africa and Botswana who are already doing this kind of routine surveillance of the coronavirus were able to rapidly warn their research networks and the rest of the world about Omicron.