Union Health Ministry asks states to take up genome sequencing of Covid +ve cases

Hyderabad: In the wake of the sudden spurt of Covid-19 cases being witnessed in countries like Japan, USA, South Korea, Brazil and China, the Union Ministry of Health and Family welfare has asked the State governments to gear up for sequencing genomes of Covid positive cases to track the variants through Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) network.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote to the State governments on taking precautionary measures in the wake of sudden rise in Covid positive cases in several countries.

The Health Secretary said that exercises like genome sequencing would enable timely detection of newer variants, if any, circulating in the country and would facilitate undertaking of requisite public health measures for the same.

The Health Secretary asked all the states to ensure that maximum number samples of all positive cases, on a daily basis, be collected and sent to the designated INSACOG Genome Sequencing Laboratories (lGSLs) that are mapped to the States and UTs.

India with its focus on a five-fold strategy of test, track, treat, vaccinate and adhere to Covid appropriate behaviour has been able to restrict the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The operational guidelines for surveillance strategy in the context of the Covid-19 virus had been revised few months ago, the country is logging around 1200 cases on a weekly basis and globally around 35 lakh cases are being reported weekly.

"The operational guidelines issued by the Union ministry of Health and Family Welfare in June, 2022 calls for early detection, isolation, testing and timely management of suspected and confirmed cases to detect and contain outbreaks of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. Therefore, monitoring the trends of existing variants is of crucial importance," the Union Health Secretary said, commending the consistent hard work put in by all States/UTs and added that the ministry would continue to extend required support to all states in this regard.

Meanwhile, five new Covid-19 cases of were reported in Telangana on Tuesday. The number of cases under treatment stands at 34 and approximately nine patients have recovered.