Rajeev Choudhury

India has so far conducted 1,64,000 genome sequencing since the start of the pandemic, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan informed during a media briefing in New Delhi on January 20, 2022.

The country had undertaken 16,000 genome sequencings in the month of December 2021, he added.

Stating that genome sequencing is important for developing strategies for public health response to the pandemic, the health secretary said, “Genome sequencing does not affect the testing and treatment response in individuals suffering from COVID19.”

Genome sequencing has to be specific and has to be on the basis of systematic collection of specimens,” said Dr V K Paul, head of India's COVID19 task force and member of NITI Aayog.

“We are perhaps number two in genomic sequencing around the world,” he added.

Terming genomic sequence a tool for public health response, Dr Paul said that “it is (genome sequencing) is a scientific tool for understating the virus and leads us to find solutions of possibilities of developing new diagnostics, new vaccines, the efficacy of vaccines.”

 Globally more than 7.2 million genomic sequencing findings have been shared to date through The GISAID Initiative, which facilitates the rapid sharing of data from all influenza viruses and the coronavirus causing COVID19 available data suggest.