INSACOG to focus on new surveillance approaches
The Hindu
It will prioritise developing and expanding a SARS CoV2 sewage surveillance programme
The decline in daily new infections across India has prompted INSACOG, the consortium of labs focussed on sequencing coronavirus variants, to “prioritise” new surveillance approaches.
In a bulletin dated 11th October, but made public on Monday, INSACOG (India SarsCov2 Genome Consortium) notes: “In view of currently declining cases and importance of early detection of increased transmission in the future, INSACOG will prioritise developing and expanding a SARS CoV2 sewage surveillance program.”
The CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, which is also part of the INSACOG network, has since early 2020 been collecting sewage from large drains in cities to check for the presence of the virus. Because a large fraction of those afflicted by the virus are asymptomatic but are carriers of infection, their body fluids and stool often contain traces of the virus. Finding large proportions of it in public drains can often be a precursor to a fresh outbreak, with a rise in symptomatic infections.