Following the rise in COVID-19 cases and the wake of the detection of a new variant of interest — JN.1 — in the neighbouring States, all eyes are now set on whole genome sequencing (WGS) of positive samples. However, the laboratory at Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), the State’s nodal WGS facility, is yet to resume the process of isolating the strain.
This is because the laboratory has neither received the required number of eligible samples — those with a Cycle Threshold (CT) value of less than 30 — nor has the human resources and consumables required for sequencing, in the event of a surge. “We need a minimum of 50 samples for one run. We have been sending whatever samples we get to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune,” said a doctor from the laboratory that is one of the INSACOG (The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium) approved government facilities.
With hardly any COVID cases being reported in the last eight months, genome sequencing — aimed at hunting new mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2 virus — had come to a standstill in the State. However, now with a new mutant strain being detected in some States, focus is again on genome sequencing.
