CSIR chief Dr Shekhar Mande said the coronavirus mutations could take place anywhere.
The genome sequencing tests being used in the hunt for the mutant strain of the coronavirus takes up to 24 hours, chief of India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) told NDTV on Thursday. Addressing fears about the new virus variant that has stoked widespread fears over greater transmissibility, Dr Shekhar Mande also said that COVID-19 vaccines being tested and developed should be effective against it.
Six labs across India are set to conduct the genome sequencing tests to find out the presence of the new mutant strain of the coronavirus. Samples of passengers who tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving from the UK are being sent to these labs. Two of these labs - Institute of Genomics in Delhi and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad come under the CSIR.
"The process of sending the samples to the labs is still ongoing. It is being coordinated by the National Centre for Disease Control. Sequencing to detect the presence of the UK strain can be done within a day because sequencing nowadays has become a routine affair. It will take a day or two at max," Dr Mande said.
The CSIR Director-General said the vaccines should be effective on the mutant strain. "Vaccines are very likely to be effective on the mutant strain. Because only a few mutations, about 15-17 of them are there in this strain. Vaccines are made in such a way that it targets the virus in a much bigger way and from many other sides so they will still generate an immune response," he said.
On being asked whether India should carry out genome sequencing at a much larger scale, Dr Mande said, "There are multiple aspects to this. Sequence-based surveillance has to be better. CSIR's mitigation strategy for Covid has been going on for quite some time. We started molecular surveillance in March and keep carrying out genome sequencing of virus strains. We get specific requests from state governments too. For example, Kerala has asked us to keep carrying out genome sequencing of virus strains that are found in different districts of Kerala. These surveillance strategies are useful. They help in detecting and isolating individuals at the earliest and prevent further spread of the infection."
About the UK strain, Dr Mande said, "Some of the mutations found in this strain have also been observed in other geographies like South Africa and Brazil. These mutations happen spontaneously. The ones in South Africa and Brazil were independent of the UK. So this is not an occurrence that is limited to the UK. These mutations can arise in India too."