BENGALURU: While several states are already dominated by the Omicron variant, the Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee has suggested that the Karnataka government should immediately procure more S-Gene Target Failure (SGTF) test kits and do random tests for Omicron cases in districts with high ‘weekly test positivity rate’.
“In view of a sudden surge in cases in the state, particularly in Bengaluru, and high weekly test positivity rate in Kodagu and other districts, it is recommended to look for the circulation of Omicron, that may be responsible for this,” said a committee expert.
Experts are suggesting that besides international travellers who are tested and isolated as per government guidelines, locally many clusters are continuously being reported in residential schools, hostels and apartments, that is a cause for concern. Since the Omicron variant underwent several mutations in the S-gene, the SGTF strategy indicates it in patients who are detected Covid-positive from other genes of the virus but show a dropout of S-gene which will help in faster detection.
“The genome patterns and data analysis are clearly showing that there is a high possibility that the third wave in Karnataka that has begun, could largely be due to Omicron. Hence, it is necessary to randomly conduct tests in the community,” said Dr Vishal Rao, member of Genome Sequencing Committee, and Dean, Head and Neck Oncologist, HCG Hospitals for Covid 19 in Karnataka.
TAC recommends that the test kits be procured on priority and supplied to Victoria Hospital, Nimhans, and Department of Microbiology, so that it speeds up the process of detection of Omicron cases for reconfirmation in genome sampling.
Tata’s Omisure test kit
ICMR has approved a kit that will be used to detect Omicron. The kit, manufactured by Tata Medical and Diagnostics, named ‘Omisure’, comes as a major aid as analysing the Omicron variant which has been an issue among medical experts and a burden on genome sequencing labs. The kit being used in India as of now is Thermo Fisher, a US-based company’s kit.