Randomly choose samples for genome sequence: Government | India News

NEW DELHI: The Center has asked states to ensure that positive samples from Covid-19 are submitted genome sequencing randomly picked and sent with their clinical profile, as failure to do so prevents proper assessment of whether a spread of infection is related to a mutation.
The concerns of the Center came after several districts, particularly in Maharashtra, were found by sending samples that were collected serially and not randomly, often resulting in the same profile of a particular cluster, officials said, underlining that this is a hurdle when analyzing whether there is a spread due to a significant mutation.
Covid 19 virus is mutating and several mutations have been found in many countries and also India including the UK (17 mutations), Brazil (17 mutations) and South Africa (12 mutations). Through Thursday, 13,614 whole genome sequencing samples have been processed in the 10 designated laboratories. Of these, 1,189 samples tested positive for variants of concern for SARS COV-2 in India. This includes 1,109 samples with UK variants; 79 samples with the South African variant and one sample with the Brazilian variant. These variants have a higher transferability.
In addition, the double mutation (two mutations) is another variant and has been found in different countries such as Australia, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Namibia, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom and the USA. However, a higher transferability of this variant has not yet been established. So far, higher portability has been established in the British, South African and Brazilian variants.
While many states have expressed concern that the spike in cases is due to mutations, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) – a network of 10 laboratories set up to continuously monitor the virus’s genomic changes in India – is to come to a conclusion.
“Genome sequencing is not that simple and it takes time to study a trend. To do this, we must first remove the anomalies and also study the clinical profiles. Some mutations are normal, but a variant is formed with several mutations, ”said an official.

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