The INSACOG consortium of scientists, spanning 10 labs throughout the nation, and concerned in sequencing genomes of coronavirus samples in several States, had been giving common updates on the risk from new strains to the federal government, mentioned a senior member of the group.
“The INSACOG members have meetings every alternate day. Whatever the results of analysis that emerge from the threat posed by new strains is shared with the National Centres for Disease Control and being a Health Ministry [body] is naturally shared with government,” Rakesh Mishra, Advisor, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, advised The Hindu.
Dr. Mishra retired because the Institute’s Director in April and since has been a scientific advisor there. “This system has been in place for most of this year, since the INSACOG system has been put into place,” he mentioned.
INSACOG refers back to the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genome Sequencing Consortia. In an interview to the information portal The Wire on Tuesday, Dr. Mishra mentioned that warnings of a rise in circumstances from the growing prevalence of new variants had been conveyed to the federal government channels that finally might probably have made their approach to the Prime Minister’s Office.
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At a press assembly on Wednesday, Health Ministry officers mentioned that data on genome sequencing had been shared with States twice in February, 2021, 4 occasions in March 2021, and once more 4 occasions in April. In a video convention with States, the Union Health Ministry mentioned it was knowledgeable concerning the present standing of Variants of Concern and new mutants and “stressed on increased and stringent public health interventions”.
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The present surge in circumstances could possibly be correlated with the rise within the B.1.617 lineage of SARS CoV-2, popularly often called the “Indian variant” of the coronavirus, the officers added.
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Dr. Mishra, in response to the interviewer’s questions in his interview to The Wire, agreed that India’s political management ought to have been extra communicative concerning the dangers that occasions akin to political rallies and non secular gatherings posed, in the way in which of crowding, and transmission of newer infectious variants getting magnified.
