BHUBANESWAR: The government has decided to initiate intense screening of all incoming passengers from
the United Kingdom (UK) to prevent the spread of a
mutated strain of SARS-CoV-2 in India.
Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) Bhubaneswar is among the five institutions in the country which will carry out the genome sequencing of
Covid-19 virus among
foreign returnees to nail the new variant found in the UK which is far more contagious.
These institutions were- ILS Bhubaneswar, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad; National Institute of Virology Pune and
InStem-NCBS, Bangalore.
Sources said all incoming passengers will be subjected to RT-PCR test followed by genome sequencing of all
positive samples. "The samples of patients who test positive for SARS-CoV-2 will be subjected to sequencing of the S gene or whole genome in five designated research centres in the country," said ILS Bhubaneswar director Ajay Parida.
He said the UK strain of SARS-CoV-2 has eight mutations. "We will collect positive samples from the UK returnees and analyse the virus strains through genome sequencing. We had earlier sequenced around 300 Covid positive samples. We have the database of virus strains found in India. We will see whether the UK strain entered India or not," said Parida.
Balram Bhargava, director-general of
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has sent a communication to all state chief secretaries and health secretaries regarding the testing.