Centre Approves To Set Up Genome Sequencing Lab In Tamil Nadu

The state health department also wrote to the union government to provide approval for the lab soon following which action was initiated on the request

A health professional segregating the samples | Credit: PTI

Chennai: The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday gives a nod to Tamil Nadu's Whole Genome Sequencing Laboratory at the State Public Health Laboratory in Chennai's DMS Campus. Therefore, the state can now independently declare the results of the Omicron variant along with the results of other Covid variants.

The nod also empowers the state from saving time instead of waiting for other labs to provide approval. 

Till Tuesday, the state was dependent on the labs in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune, which are part of INSACOG, to confirm the genome sequencing test result for Omicron and Delta variants despite establishing a lab for Rs 4 crore. The lab was even inaugurated on September 14 but did not get a nod until recently. 

Following this, Health Minister Ma Subramanian complained that the lab results were getting delayed and as a result the treatment also gets delayed. He also alleged that the state gets the lab results only after patients get discharged from the hospitals. 

The state health department also wrote to the union government to provide approval for the lab soon following which action was initiated on the request.

Meanwhile, the state on Wednesday reported 739 new Covid-19 cases taking the total number of active cases in the state to 6,654. Till now, the state witnessed 27,46,000 people testing positive for the novel coronavirus from the time of the outbreak in the state in March 2020. The state also witnessed eight deaths of patients including three patients from a private facility on Wednesday.

The state totally has 46 Omicron cases of which 27 patients have been discharged while 17 patients are still undergoing treatment in the hospitals.