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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin Tuesday inaugurated a genome sequencing laboratory at the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services (DMS) campus in Chennai.
Addressing reporters, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said the facility, which has been set up at a cost of Rs 4 crore, would help identify the variants of SARS CoV-2 sooner. He said no other government in the country has set up such a facility on its own.
He added that with the support of the central government, there were 23 genome labs in the country; in south India, there are labs in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
“Samples from Tamil Nadu were sent to the laboratory in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and the test results returned after a month and it costs up to Rs 5,000 per sample. Hence, based on the recommendations of the Chief Minister, a lab has been set up in Chennai to help us identify the variants of Covid-19 sooner,” the minister said.
He added that five medical technicians who were sent to InStem (Bengaluru) for training purposes will carry out the work in the Chennai lab.
“The lab will give us results of the samples within 4-5 hours at a low cost,” Subramanian said.
Tamil Nadu on Tuesday reported 1,591 new cases of the novel coronavirus, pushing its caseload to 26,37,010. A total of 27 succumbed to the virus, taking the total death toll to 35,217. Chennai (212), Coimbatore (201) and Erode (128) contributed the maximum number of cases. Active cases in the state stood at 16,549.
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