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With Covid-19 cases on the rise in Amravati, Yavatmal and Satara districts, the state has given the go ahead to BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital to start genome sequencing of SARS-CoV2 virus.
In Maharashtra, BJMC will be the first government medical college allowed to take up the genome sequencing work. A biosafety lab (level 3) has been conducting RT PCR tests since last year with over 1.9 lakh being processed.
Dr Rajesh Karyakarte, head of BJMC’s microbiology department, told the Indian Express that they have received samples from Yavatmal, Amravati and Satara. “Covid-19 cases are rising there and most of the contacts of families with coronavirus patients are getting infected,” he added.
“It could be a new strain but we are yet to test and carry out the genome sequencing. So far, the Centre has designated National Institute of Virology and National Centre for Cell Sciences (NCCS) to carry out genome sequencing. We have also tied up with NCCS to test samples for the UK variant,” Dr Karyakarte said.
“We have submitted a proposal for checking 4,000 strains across Maharashtra,” he added.