The Andhra Pradesh government has set up a Whole Genome Sequencing centre in Vijayawada, at a time when detection of Covid-19 variants like Omicron has become crucial in containing a new wave of infections.
The centre is the second such lab in the country to be managed by a state government. The first one was established earlier in Kerala.
The Vijayawada lab is on the premises of Siddhartha Medical College and started functioning on January 1, health department officials said.
The facility, now available locally, would save time and help implement cautionary measures early as till now the Jaganmohan Reddy government was sending the Covid-19 samples suspected for Delta, Omicron variants to the Hyderabad based, government of India run Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB).
CCMB would provide technical support to the state lab.
Meanwhile, 17 cases of Omicron were detected in the state till December-end, of the passengers who returned from other nations. All of them are said to be stable.
Teenager vaccination
The Andhra Pradesh government, which started vaccinating the 15-18-years-olds from Monday, has administered the first dose to 4.92 lakh beneficiaries on the first day.
Health commissioner Katamneni Bhaskar said that 40 lakh doses of Covaxin are readied for the purpose. Officials have set a target of vaccinating 25 lakh teenagers within a week.
Booster dose Covid-19 vaccination for frontline workers and senior citizens would begin from January 10.
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