The Jharkhand National Health Mission (NHM) has sent a proposal to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for procurement of a gene-sequencer machine to detect the new strain and mutated variants of the Covid-19 virus in Ranchi, officials said on Thursday.
The health department is expecting a reply to their proposal from the Government of India in a week, and the procurement would depend on the reply, officials from the NHM said.
“A proposal has been sent for installing a sequencer machine at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi. A reply from the concerned agencies is awaited,” said NHM Director, Ravi Shankar Shukla.While the ‘Double Mutant’ Coronavirus has been found in India, there is no mechanism in the state to detect the new and more lethal strain of the deadly virus in the state. As of now, Jharkhand is dependent on RT PCR and Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT), which do not specify if the tested sample is infected by a mutated form of the virus or the old Coronavirus, officials said.
In ‘Double Mutant’ virus, two mutations of the virus come together in one virus, say scientists. Researchers in India are currently studying the genome of the new strains of virus found in other states of the country. However, Jharkhand needs to be prepared to detect the new mutation of the virus if at all such cases surface in the state, and a sequencer machine was a must for doing so, say doctors spearheading Jharkhand’s fight against the Covid-19 virus.A sequencer machine will not only help detect new strain of Coronavirus, but also make detection of new strain of Rotavirus and Chikungunya easier, say doctors. A sequencer machine helps detect new strains of virus by examining the DNA of the subject.
If the procurement is made, then this would be the first ever sequencer machine of Bihar and Jharkhand, doctors from RIMS said. As of now, the machine is available only in New Delhi and Pune.The state has reported a significant spike in cases of Covid-19 infection in the past couple of weeks, swinging the government into action for checking the spread of the virus during Holi. As per government data, the count of active cases in the state jumped from 485 on March 1 to 969 on Thursday. In the wake of the rise in cases, the government has also intensified vigil in public places and made Covid tests mandatory for people travelling from ‘high-positivity’ states like Maharashtra and Kerala.