Rapid release of open coronavirus sequence data will help guide COVID-19 public health response, drive innovation and discovery, and advance understanding of this and future pandemicsFor Immediate Release: Friday, May 1, 2020Media Relations (404) 639-3286CDC has kicked off the SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing for Public Health Emergency Response, Epidemiology and Surveillance (SPHERES) consortium, which will greatly expand the use of whole genome sequencing (WGS) of the COVID-19 virus.This national network of sequencing laboratories will speed the release of SARS-CoV-2 sequence data into the public domain.SPHERES will provide consistent, real-time sequence data to the public health response teams investigating cases and clusters of COVID-19 across the.