Patna, December 8, 2008 : While the whole world is afraid of Covid-19’s new variant Omicron in Covid-19, Bihar does not have the facility to perform genome sequencing at the moment. Only the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna has a lab for genome sequencing.
However, it lacks the reagent necessary to run a test.This situation was created after samples from Covid-positive patients, who were brought in from other countries, were sent to IGIMS.
Bihar Health department has issued an order to purchase the reagent.It will take at most 15 days for it to arrive.
This means that the testing of genome sequencing in Biahr can only begin after 15 days.
Genome sequencing allows you to determine the nature of each type of virus that a patient has been infected with.
Genome sequencing is the only way to detect Omicron and Delta coronavirus variants.
Mangal Pandey (Bihar Health Minister) claimed that Omicron is not present in the state.
Minister made the claim at a time when five patients from Africa and two from Dubai were found to be Covid-positive in an RT-PCR test.The samples were sent to IGIMS to be sequenced.
The reagent is not readily available in the lab so the samples are kept in cold storage.
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