BMC reports XE variant case in Mumbai: Sequencing data of SA national sent to NIBMG for further analysis

On Wednesday, the civic body had flagged – for the time in India – a case of XE variant in a 50-year-old South African national in Mumbai. It was discovered in the 11th genome sequencing conducted at state-of-the-art genome sequencer in BMC-run Kasturba Gandhi Hospital. However, within hours, the Centre announced that the sample didn’t match the variant’s genomic picture.

Later, INSACOG held a meeting, which was attended by Dr Jayanthi Shastri, director of the molecular diagnostics lab and in charge of the genome sequencing facility at Kasturba hospital. “The INSACOG had instructed us to send the samples to NIBMG, which we did on Thursday. Now, we have to wait for the final analysis,” said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC.

Genome sequencing is an exercise to study the changes in the structure of virus over time.

As per the routine protocol, the BMC has to send all the sequenced data to National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune for quality check. “Like always, we sent all the sequenced samples to NIV. After its acknowledgement, we announced the results of the genome sequencing on Wednesday,” said an official from BMC’s health department.

Since the start of the pandemic, the molecular diagnostics laboratory has played a pivotal role. On March 11, 2020, the lab joined the few elite national government laboratories to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In May 2021, the Union health ministry allowed Kasturba hospital to commence genome sequencing, making it the first civic-run hospital to conduct the test in Mumbai. The high-speed machine can run tests on 380 samples per round. The BMC incurs a cost of Rs10,000 for testing each sample.

“The lab is a Union government approved high-end laboratory. No protocol states that the BMC needs to seek permission from the Centre before making an announcement of our own findings,” said an official.