If any newer variant circulating…: Tamil Nadu govt amid Covid fears

As cases surge in Japan, the United States of America, Korea, Brazil, and China, it is essential to track variants through the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) network, said the Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Dr T S Selvavinayagam. 

In his latest directive to the private hospitals and private labs approved for conducting Covid-19 RT-PCR test to send the samples to the government labs for genomic sequencing.

“Such an exercise will enable timely detection of newer variants, if any, circulating in the country and will facilitate undertaking of requisite public health measures for the same,” he said 

With focus on 5-fold strategy of test, track, treat, vaccination and adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour, he said Tamil Nadu has been able to restrict the transmission of the deadly virus and sees about 60 cases on a weekly basis. 

He pointed out that the public health challenge of coronavirus still persists around the world with about 35 lakh cases being reported on a weekly basis. 

Citing the operational guidelines for revised surveillance strategy for Covid-19 issued by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry in June 2022 calling for early detection, isolation, testing and timely management of suspected and confirmed cases to detect and contain outbreaks of new SARS-CoV-2 variants, he said monitoring the trends of existing variants is crucial. 

“In this context, we received guidelines from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to do WGS for positive samples. I request that all samples of COVID-19-positive cases be sent on a daily basis to the State public health laboratory, Chennai, for genomic sequencing,” said Dr Selvaginayagam. 

The government has appointed a nodal officer for WGS in the cadre of deputy director.