‘Omicron may already be in India, need to ramp up genome sequencing’: Dr Gagandeep Kang

BENGALURU,NOV.30: While fears of the highly divergent Omicron variant of the coronavirus loom large in India, renowned microbiologist Dr Gagandeep Kang has expressed fears that it may have already entered the country.

The focus now should be on ramping up genome sequencing and introducing S-Gene PCR testing to quickly detect it and act on containing the spread, she stressed.

Speaking exclusively to TNIE, Dr Kang, microbiologist and virologist, Christian Medical College, Vellore, said, “It’s very likely that this variant is already in much more than the 12 countries identified so far. It may be in India too, but our genome sequencing is so slow that we don’t know if it is here. There is no use if sequencing data comes one month after an event has occurred. Then, it becomes an academic exercise. It does not help with control of the new variant if it has entered the population. Hopefully now, the sequencing will be faster and we will have an answer to that.”

She explained that this variant has something called as S Gene dropout, which means there’s no need for genome sequencing too if S Gene PCR tests are done. This can give a report on the presence of the Omicron in a few hours.

“This will allow us to get very rapid epidemiological information and once we have that, we will have a sense of spread.”

While mutation of the virus was expected, what came as a surprise is that the Omicron has more mutations (30-plus in the spike protein) than any other variants seen before, she said.

-NIE