Syllabus Section: Science and Technology
Why in News?
- Department of Biotechnology organizes Public Webinar on the “Genome Sequencing of SARS-CoV-19.
- For improving the understanding of the nuances of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing and its public health relevance in the context of the current pandemic, webinar was conducted.
About:
- The Government of India had established a national multi-agency consortium, Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortium (INSACOG) in December 2020,in the backdrop of reports of emergence of variants of the SARS-CoV-2, in the UK and some other parts of the world.
- Aim: Monitoring the genomic variations in the SARS-CoV-2 on a regular basis.
- The responsibility to correlate the clinical aspects and coordinate the collection of samples from states, for this purpose, was provided to National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), MoHFW.
- INSACOG has a data repository at IGIB, New Delhi and NIBMG, Kalyani.
- Current data does not suggest that the surge is solely due to any one variant or any one factor.
- The reasons for surge are primarily due to:
- Non-adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviours
- Rising immune escape mutations and some that also increase infectivity.
- Declining immunity
Source: PIB
