States Asked To Submit "Larger Number" Of Covid Samples For Sequencing

The direction was issued during Friday's meeting by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) which reviewed the COVID-19 data to check the possibility of any new emerging variant or sub-variant.

States and Union territories have been asked to submit "larger number" of samples for whole genome sequencing from districts and areas which have seen a surge in COVID-19 cases over a period of seven days, official sources said on Saturday.

The direction was issued during Friday's meeting by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) which reviewed the COVID-19 data to check the possibility of any new emerging variant or sub-variant and ascertain the reasons behind the breakthrough infections.

"The idea behind asking states and Union territories to send larger number of samples is to keep a closer watch over the current circulating sub-lineages of Omicron and its correlation to the current epidemiological picture," an official said.

"Also, we want to see if we are missing out any important clues regarding newer sub variants during routine sequencing through the sentinel surveillance," the official added.