BENGALURU: The Bengaluru Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), performing genomic sequencing on international air passengers and locals testing positive for Covid-19, currently has equipment only for two more cycles of genomic testing.
Sources in BMCRI said genomic surveillance is an expensive process, and costs Rs 10,000 to perform a test cycle for one sample. The expense for the whole test cycle comes to Rs 8 lakh.
The source said that ideally, 96 samples can be tested in a single test cycle. As of now, the department is only testing around 50 samples in one cycle. She said reports of the first test cycle arrived recently, which included samples for 10 airport passengers who had tested Covid-positive.
Test reports showed one case of a passenger infected with the new BF.7.4 variant, while the remaining were infected with XBB and BA.2.75 variants. The second set of samples has not been sent for testing yet, and is expected to be done this week.
Dr Ravi K, dean, BMCRI, said they had sufficient resources and manpower to perform surveillance testing. There was no equipment shortage as such, and they were already planning to procure more equipment in the coming days. He said the hospital was financially well-equipped to bear the cost and the government was also supporting them in times of need.