Medical labs in India start sequencing novel coronavirus

NEW DELHI: India is actively involved in fighting the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Doing its bit, India has shared nine whole genome sequences of the novel coronavirus. The sequences have been shared with the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID)-a public platform started by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2009 for countries to share genome sequences with the aim of better understanding spread of diseases. All sequences have been shared by the Pune-based National Institute of Virology.

So far, the United States of America has shared the highest number of sequences of virus isolated from humans with 621 sequences contributed. The United Kingdom with 350, Belgium with 253 and China with 242 contributed sequences stand second, third and fourth respectively.

On April 2, all national laboratories, including those under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), were granted permission by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to begin testing people for the novel coronavirus. Since these labs will now have access to the virus samples, they will be in a position to sequence the genome too.

According to Dr. Shekhar C. Mande, Director-General CSIR, both the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB) and the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), Delhi have already started sequencing the virus.