Preparing GISRS for the upcoming influenza seasons during the COVID-19 pandemic – practical considerations

Overview

Since the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the disease it causes, COVID-19, early in 2020, and in particular since the designation of the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic by WHO, laboratories of the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS) have become COVID-19 testing centres in many countries. GISRS has also become the main global platform for COVID-19 sentinel surveillance, an essential component of WHO COVID-19 pandemic surveillance. Influenza-like illness (ILI), acute respiratory infection (ARI), and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) syndromic sentinel surveillance systems have served to monitor community transmission and geographic spread of COVID-19. However, numbers of specimens tested for influenza and shipments of viruses to WHO Collaborating Centres of GISRS have significantly decreased in the past months compared with the same time period in previous years. Reporting directly or indirectly to FluNet by some countries has also been delayed or ceased altogether. Although influenza activity in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased and remains at inter-seasonal levels, the Southern Hemisphere influenza season is imminent. Moreover, continued vigilance is needed for the emergence of zoonotic and non-seasonal influenza viruses of pandemic potential, as has been seen in the recent past in outbreaks caused by A(H5N1) and A(H7N9) viruses, for example. This document outlines practical considerations for GISRS, regional influenza networks, and national influenza surveillance systems as they prepare for the coming and subsequent influenza seasons and the possible emergence of influenza viruses of pandemic potential while the COVID-19 pandemic continues.