NEW DELHI: Center asked states to ensure positive samples of Covid-19 are sent genome order are randomly picked and sent with their clinical profile, as this may not prevent the correct assessment of the spread of infection to a mutation.
The Center’s concerns come to various districts, especially in Maharashtra, samples were found to be picked up serially and not randomly, often resulting in the same profile of a specific group, officials said, which is an obstacle to analyzing whether there is a spread due to any significant mutation.
Covid 19 virus has been mutated and various mutations have been found in many countries as well as in India, including the UK (17 mutations), Brazil (17 mutations) and South Africa (12 mutations). As of Thursday, 13,614 whole genome sequences of samples had been processed in the ten laboratories. Of these, 1189 samples tested positive for the SARS COV-2 varieties in India. This includes 1,109 samples with British variants; 79 samples with the South African variant and one sample with the Brazil variant. These variants have a higher transferability.
In addition, the double mutation (two mutations) is another variant and is found in various countries such as Australia, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Namibia, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom and the USA. However, the 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.
Although many states have expressed concern that the increase in cases is due to mutations, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) – a network of ten laboratories that is continuously monitored by the genomic changes of the virus in India – is still to come to a conclusion.
‘Genome sequencing is not that easy and it takes time to study a trend. To do this, we must first remove the abnormalities and also study the clinical profiles. “Some mutations are normal, but a variant is formed with multiple mutations,” an official said.
