In a letter to States and Union Territories, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, “in view of the sudden spurt of cases being witnessed in Japan, United States of America, Republic of Korea, Brazil and China, it is essential to gear up the whole genome sequencing of positive case samples to track the variants through Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) network.”
Medical staff moves a patient into a fever clinic at Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing, China December 13, 2022. (Reuters)
Bhushan said all states are requested to ensure that samples of all positive cases are sent to the designated INSACOG Genome Laboratories that are mapped to states and UTs on a daily basis. He said such an exercise will enable the timely detection of newer variants if circulating in the country.
In the letter, Bhushan called for early detection, isolation, testing, and timely management of suspected and confirmed cases to detect and contain outbreaks of new SARS-CoV-2 variants.
Highlighting India’s five-fold strategy of test-track-treat-vaccination and adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour and its effectiveness in restricting the transmission of the coronavirus to 1,200 cases on a weekly basis, he said the public health challenge of COVID-19 still persists around the world with around 35 lakh cases reported weekly.
Referring to the operational guidelines for the revised surveillance strategy for Covid issued by the ministry in June this year, he also underlined the importance of monitoring the trends of existing variants.
China has been witnessing a massive spurt in Covid infections fuelled by new variants of the Omicron strain. The nation, which abandoned its stringent anti-virus controls earlier this month, reported seven deaths in the last two days due to the virus. According to reports, Chinese cities are currently hit by the highly transmissible Omicron strains mainly BA.5.2 and BF.7.
