Maharashtra ramps up genome sequencing & vaccination: Centre urges Maharashtra, TN to strengthen sewage sampling

The Centre has pointed out that referral of samples for sequencing decreased in April and May in Maharashtra and there was also a need to deploy immediate surge sampling in Mumbai.

It has also instructed metros in Maharashtra (Mumbai, Pune), apart from Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram, to strengthen sewage sampling to capture early signals for any surge.

Dr Ambadekar, who is also the state joint director of health services (procurement cell and hospitals), told The Indian Express that efforts are underway to get more samples for genome sequencing.

“We are asking laboratories to send samples if a rapid antigen test is positive followed by an RTPCR test and CT value below 25,” a state health official said.

Officials said they hoped to place atleast 300 samples this week for genome sequencing
at various laboratories in Pune. According to a June 13 report of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a surge in Covid-19 cases has been noted in the country and the positivity rate in the last week was at 2.21 per cent.

As on June 13, a total of 47,995 active cases of Covid have been reported in the country with Maharashtra and Kerala accounting for 34 and32per cent of the new infections.

The 16,370 active cases in Maharashtra are largely concentrated in Mumbai and its suburban areas as well as Pune.

In Pune, the weekly Covid positivity rate (June 5-11) is 8.34 per cent while in Mumbai it is 10.28 per cent and more than 15 per cent in Mumbai suburban, as per the report.

Of the 101 districts in India reporting a weekly positivity of more than 2 per cent in the week ending June 11, as many as ten are in Maharashtra.

According to the latest report from WHO, globally, BA.2.12.1, BA.5 and BA.4 variants are rising in prevalence.

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According to a report by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium(Insacog – June 3), currently 99 per cent of the samples in the country are of the Omicron variant or its micro lineages. Of the internationally flagged sub-variant BA.2.12.1 (driving the surge in North America), a few have been identified in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, but no increase has been noted. BA.4 and BA.5 (driving the surge in South Africa) have been identified in Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Ambadekar said priority is also being given to vaccination. There were not many takers in the interim as cases had come down and so, it was not a priority for many families to get the child immunised.

“We have, however, urged maximum numbers and even conducted home visits to encourage families. So far 32,000 houses have been visited in the last week,” Ambadekar said.

According to the latest report of National Institute of Virology, Pune, 2 more patients of BA.5 variant have been found in Thane city. One of the patients is a 25-year-old woman and the other is a 32- year-old man. They were found to be infected with Covid-19 on May 28 and May 30 and both of them recovered during home isolation.

Both of these patients have been vaccinated.

According to the information given by BJ Medical College in Pune, of recent samples in Maharashtra, BA.2 is the most prominent variant followed by BA.2.38.