India Needs To Test To Figure Out If Variants Are Causing Surge

The South Asian nation has tested less than 1% of its positive samples, according to government data, compared to the U.K. which has sequenced 8% of infections, and 33% in the last week, the Covid-19 Genomics U.K. Consortium said.

India's failure to quickly examine Covid-19 samples for new variants risks hurting its battle against a record surge of infections, with scientists warning the delays could damage everything from vaccine efficacy to effective hospital treatments. The South Asian nation has tested less than 1% of its positive samples, according to government data, compared to the U.K. which has sequenced 8% of infections, and 33% in the last week, the Covid-19 Genomics U.K. Consortium said. The U.S. last month reported it was sequencing about 4% of its 400,000 weekly new cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted. India reported more than 115,000 new daily infections on Wednesday, taking its tally of cases to 12.8 million, behind Brazil and the U.S. Its wealthiest state Maharashtra has emerged as the epicenter, forcing the government to halt all non-essential services, order private companies to work from home, and shut malls and restaurants through April. Other states have also imposed restrictions, though none as severe. After new variants from the U.K. were discovered in several inbound passengers, India set up a consortium of 10 state-run laboratories to sequence positive tests samples in December. However, between January and March the country has only studied 11,064 of its samples, the Ministry of Health said at a briefing on March 30, which is less than 0.6% over that period.