Information related to  COVID-19 

Sequencing and analyses of SARS-CoV-2 variants in India

India’s Vaccine Task Force co-chaired by Principal Scientific Adviser, Prof. K. VijayRaghavan and Dr. Vinod Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, met in December 2020 as B.1.1.7 was detected a few months ago in September 2020. the variant SARS-CoV-2 VOC 202012/01 (Variant of Concern, the year 2020, month 12, variant 01 or B.1.1.7). The variant was characterized by 23 nucleotide substitutions and not phylogenetically related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus circulating in the United Kingdom at the time the variant was detected. On 30 December 2020, 31 other countries/territories/areas reported the variant (Source: World Health Organization). Also, were reported the B.1.351 variant of South Africa and P1, P2 of Brazil. The Vaccine Task Force, taking cognizance of the situation, reiterated the need for a common platform for harmonized protocols for virus surveillance, genome sequencing, and characterization in India.

The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) was established to primarily build infrastructure across the country for genome sequencing, connect research outcomes to the clinical and epidemiological profile of patients and inform policymaking for effective control of the pandemic. INSACOG is a group of ten research laboratories the government put together to ramp up sequencing across India. INSACOG was formed with its centre at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) New Delhi, coordinated by MoHFW, CSIR, DBT, and ICMR for laboratory surveillance as well as epidemiological surveillance of B.1.1.7 strain of SARS-COV-2.