Ugly truth of studying virus variant in NE
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: June 17, 2021 -

CONSIDERING the mad rush for vaccination coupled with the union government paving the way for instant registration on the CoWIN digital platform and inoculation at any vaccination centre, it is unlikely that confirmation of the first death in India due to side effects from jabbing the Covid vaccines by a government panel on Tuesday will hinder the on-going exercise to shield all eligible citizens from the virus.

However, three research institutes deciding to collaborate for sequencing genomes of the SARS Cov-2 virus variants prevalent/ evolving in the north eastern states might possibly expose reasons for the regional governments undermining the need for carrying out a similar study especially taking into account of the fact that the second wave of the pandemic has been seriously affecting life and livelihood of the northeast people.

Being a new and unpredictable disease, governmental initiatives to get an insight into the virus variant that has been wreaking havoc in the region might have helped the health experts devise the best measures to minimise impact from the second wave of the pandemic.

Weeks after the pandemic broke in India last year, lakhs of NE citizens returned to their native lands from virus hotspots and consequently swelled the number of infections in some of the states.

However, prompt setting up of quarantine facilities for the returnees and containment measures ensured that the situation remained under control and the fatalities negligible compared to the mainland parts of the country.

That aura of invincibility among people of the region against the contagion in the first wave has, however, been shattered at this juncture.

Among the worst-hit states in the northeast, Assam embraced the second wave of Covid-19 with 58 cases of fresh infection as on April 1, according to that state's National Health Mission (NHM) data.

Presently, Assam has 40,000-plus active cases out of its cumulative total of over 4.6 lakhs while the fatality count is well above the 3000-mark.

Manipur, which is the second most affected state in the NE with a total of over 60,000 people infected, 8443 active cases and the death toll only two short of 1000 as per the official count till June 15, reported only one new case of coronavirus infection on April 1.

The state government indeed swung into action to contain the second wave when health department issued an order on April 15, making it mandatory for all people entering Manipur, by air or by road, irrespective of the place of origin to produce a negative RT-PCR/TruNat/CB-NAAT Covid-19 test report taken within 72 hours from arrival.

That the order came too late could be gauged from the state regularly detecting infected people in the figures of 500 to 700 daily for the last few days.

Among the least affected states also, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim, which were considered the safest zones in the region during the first wave, are also battling the pandemic like all its other sister states with active cases in these three states standing above the 3000 mark.

Amid such disheartening figures, the report of Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) database confirming that out of the total Covid-19 genomes sequenced from samples all over India, only 0.71 per cent of genomes have been sequenced from samples originating from Northeast India leaves nothing to doubt about the lackadaisical attitude of the regional governments to conduct genome surveillance.

It's even more distressing to learn that the government of Manipur had not accorded importance to conduct genome sequencing when the Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development (IBSD), one of the research partners, is actually headquartered in the state.