NEW DELHI: The health department of the Delhi government has issued an order to begin collecting samples to be sent to the National Centre for Disease Control to be further analysed and processed on the whole genome sequencing (WGS).According to an official order by the health department, samples are to be collected and divided in three categories — first mild cases, then moderate cases, followed by severe cases, critical cases, re-infection, and lastly cases that have received two doses of vaccination.For all these six categories, the authorities will be collecting three samples each in all the 11 districts to be sent to NCDC in every week.
“The District Supply Officers are to be directed to ensure identification of the cases as per above defined criteria and further to instruct and ensure that the concerned labs send the identified samples for WGS to NCDC within the prescribed timelines. A category wise database of the above cohorts is to be maintained at all districts and to be shared whenever the same is requisitioned for by the state/higher authorities,” the order further stated.
The decision comes a day after the Centre said it found the presence of a variant of Sars-Cov-2 in Delhi in nine samples, while 65 others had the UK variant B.1.1.7 adding that genomic sequencing has increased “exponentially” and it will be increased further. Meanwhile, district authorities have also started to go for contact tracing and testing at least 30 contacts of person detected positive.
“More than 400 variants identified across the world and this variant, a new one, is not found. However, these three variants — UK, Brazil, South Africa — are not the concern. The concern is the variant found in Maharashtra... How much this variant can double, how much has changed, faster infection but low mortality — what characteristics it has. The virus will remain for long and cause infection. The comparison between rise in Maharashtra and Delhi has not been done yet. Study will help find out the pattern of distribution and a relationship can be established,” said Dr Jugal Kishore, head of Community Medicine at Safdarjung Hospital.