Dr. Sujeet Singh, head of India’s Disease Control Program, said genome sequencing has been performed on over 15,000 Covid-19 samples to date. He went on to say that performing genome sequencing on 5 percent of all samples that currently test positive for Covid-19 is “not currently feasible due to the surge in cases.”
Since the country began genome sequencing of Covid-19 samples using a network of 10 laboratories called INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium), less than 1 percent of total samples have been sequenced.
This is well below the 5 percent target set by the central government, which in any case was initially very low.
The presence of the British variant has doubled in Delhi
The central government said on Friday the presence of the highly transmittable UK variant of Covid-19Variant B.1.17 has almost doubled in Delhi in less than a month. This mutated variant of the new coronavirus was seen in 28 percent of the samples from Covid-19 patients that were sequenced in Delhi in the first week of March.
In less than 30 days, the variant can now be seen in 50 percent of the samples that tested positive for Covid-19 in the state capital.
The rating explains the exponential increase in new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Delhi, the city hardest hit by overall infections. On Thursday, Delhi reported 306 coronavirus-related deaths, as well as more than 26,000 new confirmed cases recorded in the past 24 hours.
“Both UK, double mutant variant in Delhi”
“Both Great Britain and the USA were represented in the state capital Double mutant variant“said Dr. Sujeet Singh, director of the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC). Dr. Singh spoke at a webinar organized by the Department of Biotechnology.
Of 2,521 samples sequenced in Delhi, the British variant was found in 324 (13 percent) samples.
File photo of a genome sequencing laboratory set up at New Delhi Airport in January this year (Photo credit: PTI)
Similarly, 75 samples (3 percent) had the double mutant variant or the Indian variant, he said
NCDC director Dr. Sujeet Singh said, “If we just try to relate the rise we see in Delhi, I think it is directly related to the type of variation we see.”
Triple mutation in Bengal, variants in Maharashtra
Meanwhile a A triple mutation has been found in West Bengalconfirmed Sudhanshu Vrati, director of the Regional Center for Biotechnology.
At a webinar organized by the Department of Biotechnology, he said the presence of the double mutant variant B1.617 was found in over 50 percent of the samples sequenced in Maharashtra.
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