Panaji: Health Minister Vishwajit Rane He said that the Goa government is in the process of procuring a genome sequencing machine.
instructions have been issued to Goa Medical College(GMC) Acting Dean Dr JP Tiwari asked to take forward the proposal to buy the machine.
Rane said the proposal was submitted to the government sometime back.
Since Goa does not have its own genome sequencing facility, the samples are sent to the National Center for Cytology (NCCS), Pune. In most of the cases, there has been a huge delay in getting the result from NCCS.
Very few results have been received from the NCCS since health services started sending samples from international travelers in the past fortnight, while reports of over 500 samples from locals sent regularly over the past few months are still awaited. Is.
Rane said the facility will enable health services to conduct tests in the state and deliver results faster.
“The state government is working relentlessly to ensure that we get the genome sequencing machine at the earliest,” Rane said.
Meanwhile, the health department has started the ‘S’ gene dropout test, which helps in taking possible Covid samples with the Omicron version of the virus, at the District Hospital, Mapusa. But, a senior health services official said they were unable to use it as a conclusive test with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) not giving them permission.
The official said that the ‘S’ gene dropout test, which gives a clue about the possible presence of the omicron variant, has to be confirmed by genome sequencing.
“S gene dropout is used as a proxy marker to indicate which positive cases are most likely to be omicrons. As it is not possible to sequence all cases, this sentinel sequencing is used for monitoring of cases.” It serves as an essential marker to identify,” said Dr Eugene D’Souza, Consultant Pathologist.
instructions have been issued to Goa Medical College(GMC) Acting Dean Dr JP Tiwari asked to take forward the proposal to buy the machine.
Rane said the proposal was submitted to the government sometime back.
Since Goa does not have its own genome sequencing facility, the samples are sent to the National Center for Cytology (NCCS), Pune. In most of the cases, there has been a huge delay in getting the result from NCCS.
Very few results have been received from the NCCS since health services started sending samples from international travelers in the past fortnight, while reports of over 500 samples from locals sent regularly over the past few months are still awaited. Is.
Rane said the facility will enable health services to conduct tests in the state and deliver results faster.
“The state government is working relentlessly to ensure that we get the genome sequencing machine at the earliest,” Rane said.
Meanwhile, the health department has started the ‘S’ gene dropout test, which helps in taking possible Covid samples with the Omicron version of the virus, at the District Hospital, Mapusa. But, a senior health services official said they were unable to use it as a conclusive test with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) not giving them permission.
The official said that the ‘S’ gene dropout test, which gives a clue about the possible presence of the omicron variant, has to be confirmed by genome sequencing.
“S gene dropout is used as a proxy marker to indicate which positive cases are most likely to be omicrons. As it is not possible to sequence all cases, this sentinel sequencing is used for monitoring of cases.” It serves as an essential marker to identify,” said Dr Eugene D’Souza, Consultant Pathologist.
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