Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government on December 28 released a guidance document as part of its surveillance strategy to monitor the genomic variations in the Sars-Cov-2 virus that causes coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on genomic sequencing. The Union government also identified 10 advanced regional laboratories to serve as regional hub laboratories for this purpose.
Along with this, the union health ministry has also established Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) aiming to oversee the surveillance work on a regular basis, reported Hindustan Times.
COVID-19 update | Mutated coronavirus variant 56% more transmissible than other strains, says study
The government will maintain all the genomic sequencing data in its national database at two sites including West Bengal's National Institute of Biomedical Genomics and New Delhi's Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology.
Through the project, the ministry is aimed at establishing sentinel surveillance for the early detection of genomic variants with public health implications. Also, determining genomic variants in unusual events or trends such as super-spreader events will also be ensured with this project.
As per the research conducted by the United Kingdom researchers, the mutated viruses leads to the emergence of new variants and are more transmissible than previously circulating variants.
Though there is no experimental evidence or indication of increased infection severity with the mutated COVID-19 virus, estimated increased transmissibility of up to 70 percent has been cautioned by the authorities. Countries like Denmark, Belgium Netherlands and Australia have reported some of the new UK variant of Sars-Cov-2 cases.
