Guwahati, Dec 30: The Assam government has started deliberations with the CSIR-North East Institute of Science and Technology (NEIST) to set up a genomic sequencing laboratory at the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).
The move is aimed at bolstering the testing and tracking infrastructure in the state amidst the threat posed by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Assam health minister Keshab Mahanta on Wednesday visited the Jorhat campus of NEIST and discussed the plan with CSIR-NEIST director Dr G Narahari Shastry in the presence of the National Health Mission (NHM), Assam managing director and scientists at the institute.
“Assam has been continuously fighting against COVID-19 and all preventive measures are in place to keep people safe from the virus, given the emergence of the Omicron variant in the country,” Mahanta said.
According to latest reports, India has already recorded over 950 Omicron cases, with 21 states in the country reporting increasing cases of the new variant over the past few days.
The health minister deliberated on enhancing the state’s medical infrastructure, including setting up a COVID-testing laboratory in Guwahati, and other facilities for better diagnosis.
The deliberations have been prompted by the growing need and importance of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing in the Northeast keeping the Omicron scare in context.
The minister and virologists also visited the advanced molecular laboratory of NEIST.
A COVID-19 testing laboratory was established on the Jorhat campus of the North East Institute of Science and Technology (NEIST) in mid-2020. The institute’s Biotechnology Division has been playing a pivotal role in carrying out RT-PCR-based COVID-19 tests.
Omicron, which has been termed by the World Health Organisation as the ‘Variant of Concern,’ has also emerged in the Northeast recently.
A 48-year-old man from Manipur, with a travel history to the East African country of Tanzania, tested positive for the new variant of COVID-19 after his sample was sent for genome sequencing by health authorities in the state.
Three other contacts of the person have also tested positive for COVID-19 but the results of the genome sequencing of their samples are awaited.
Scientists have been taking resort to genome sequencing to track SARS-CoV-2 almost in real-time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Genome sequencing helps researchers identify variants that spread to new regions.