INSACOG
- SCI & TECH
News:
COVID-19 genomics body
INSACOG has not put out weekly bulletin since March 27
What's
in the news?
●
India appears to have slowed down on
sequencing genomes of COVID-19 variants.
INSACOG:
●
The India SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium
(INSACOG), a multi-laboratory,
multi-agency, pan-India network tasked with sequencing.
●
It is a repository of labs tasked with
monitoring the coronavirus variants.
●
This network of 28 national laboratories has been sequencing samples collected from
all over the country since the emergence of alpha variant (B.1.1.7) in the UK.
Objectives:
●
To
ascertain the status of Variants of Interest (VoI) and Variants of Concern
(VoC) in India.
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To establish sentinel surveillance and
surge surveillance mechanisms for early detection of genomic variants and
assist in formulating effective public health response.
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To determine the presence of genomic
variants in samples collected during super-spreader events and in areas
reporting increasing trend of cases/deaths, etc.
Nodal
body:
●
It is jointly set up by the Health Ministry, the Department of
Biotechnology (DBT), the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
and the Indian Council of Medical Research.