PunjabChief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday asked the concerneddepartments to step up Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) to expeditiously identifycases of new Covid variant and to fast track the project for execution of theMoU with ICMR for Regional Institute of Virology, Mohali.
Thoughno fresh cases of Delta Plus variant (apart from two reported earlier based onMay sampling) had been identified in the state, the Chief Minister directedthat the Whole Genome Sequencing Lab at GMCH Patiala, coming up with thesupport of PATH, must become functional this month. PATH has informed that themachine is likely to be installed by 25th July, the Chief Minister wasapprised. VRDL GMC Patiala has applied for registration with INSACOG.
Reviewingthe Covid situation, the Chief Minister noted with satisfaction that the statewas also starting dry swab testing, with a pilot at GMC Patiala next week.Sensitivity of the dry swab variant method is 79% and specificity is 99% whencompared with standard RTPCR test as the gold standard. Considering its lessercost and quick turn-around, the dry swab variant method can be used as ascreening tool only in settings where automated RNA extraction is notavailable.
Asper GoI guidelines, Punjab has identified 10 sentinel sites and sending atleast 15 samples per site every 15 days for whole genome sequencing. Positive samples of post vaccination,re-infection cases, death cases, severe cases, clustering etc. are being sentfor WGS, the meeting was informed.