INSACOG to 'review' genomic surveillance data amid rising Covid-19 cases

New Delhi, June 11: In view of the surge in the number of Covid-19 cases in India, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) will be reviewing the data of genomic surveillance of variants in the country next week in a meeting, as per sources.

INSACOG is jointly initiated by the Union Health Ministry of Health and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

On Friday, Dr Samiran Panda, Additional Director-General, ICMR, said, "Panic does not serve as an appropriate Covid, pandemic, or public health response. Panic does not help to analyse the data, it doesn't serve any purpose." Also Read | Centre issues new guidelines for print, television and online advertisements; bans surrogate ads "It is about examining the data very carefully. So, if from a particular site or from a district or a few districts in the state upsurges or peak is being observed, then we need to look at the number of tests conducted in that area. The local data needs to be examined carefully for local-level decision making," he added. Dr Panda also stressed closely monitoring Covid-19 cases at the local or district level. He said, "Examining the data carefully, where can we have relevance local level or the district level every both is an important rather than extrapolating it over one state or the entire country." Also Read | Punjab CM announces action against kin of 'influential' people who got jobs on fake degrees As the country is witnessing an upward surge in Covid infections, the daily infection tally surpassed the 8,000 mark, which is the highest recorded cases in over three months, on Saturday. India reported 8,329 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, which is 745 more infections than Friday, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. With this surge, the active Covid caseload in the country stands at 40,370, constituting 0.09 per cent of the country's total positive cases. Maharashtra logged 3,081 new Covid-19 cases on Friday and most of the cases are from Mumbai alone. -PTC News