genomics in other countries. Its systems and tools have been used by national genome projects in England, Qatar, Singapore; pediatric rare disease programs in the UK, US and China; and at its subsidiary Genomics Medicine Ireland. In 2019, deCODE and US regional health system Intermountain partnered to conduct a 500,000-person WGS-based research and precision medicine study, and deCODE also began sequencing 225,000 participants in the UK Biobank. Response to COVID-19 pandemic In March 2020, as the SARS-CoV-2 virus began to spread widely in Iceland, deCODE temporarily redirected its clinical research, laboratory staff and operations to conduct large-scale testing for COVID-19. This effort marked the company's deepest and most direct ever involvement in public health and constitutes an important component of one of the most intensive and successful containment strategies of any country in the early months of the global pandemic. The response of Iceland's health authorities to the pandemic was notable for being an early, transparent and effective example of best-practice 'test, trace and isolate' epidemiological control. In late January 2020, the National Directorate of Health began testing people arriving in Iceland from high-risk areas or showing possible symptoms of infection, and, with the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management, activated a system to isolate anyone diagnosed with the virus and to trace and quarantine all of their contacts. Iceland's first case was diagnosed on 28 February, a month after targeted testing began, and within days dozens of people were testing positive every day. Little more than two months later, Iceland was virtually free of active infections. The foundation of this response and the data to guide it was testing. Yet while the official testing effort was prompt and energetic, it was focused on those who were either symptomatic or at high risk due to having likely been in contact with infected people. In early March, deCODE's CEO Kari Stefansson became concerned that without also screening the population at large there was no way to understand the virus' spread or its fatality rate, crucial information for holistically addressing the epidemic. In this "all-hands-on-deck" moment, and with the know-how, people and equipment to rapidly turn the company's genetics research lab into a PCR diagnostic testing facility, he offered to put the company's capabilities to work to screen the general population under the auspices of the Directorate of Health. deCODE staff worked swiftly to put together workflows for everything from sample