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Mumbai's Kasturba Hospital to begin genome sequencing of COVID-19 samples

Genome sequencing involves analysis of the genetic code of the virus, which helps scientists find the exact location where a mutation has taken place.

Mumbai's Kasturba Hospital to begin genome sequencing of COVID-19 samples
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According to reports, Kasturba hospital in Mumbai will become the first government hospital in the city to conduct genome sequencing by mid-April.

This sequencing will be conducted on the COVID-19 test samples in order to understand the mutations in cases of coronavirus surfacing locally and amongst international passengers.

Moreover, genome sequencing involves analysis of the genetic code of the virus, which helps scientists find the exact location where a mutation has taken place. In addition, this happens to be a time consuming and expensive process, costing INR 7,000 to INR 12,000 per sample.

Speaking about the same, Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani stated, “Mumbai was sending its samples to the National Institute of Virology in Pune for genome sequencing, which would take several days to come up with results. Over the last three months, Mumbai has sent at least 223 samples to various government laboratories and found UK variants of the virus in 22 of them. No additional information on other mutations has been released to BMC,"

On the other hand, on Wednesday, March 31, Maharashtra recorded 39,544 people testing positive for the novel coronavirus which propelled the state's COVID-19 tally to 28,12,980. At present, there are 3,56,243 active cases in the state. With 23,600 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number of recovered patients soared to 24,00,727.

Meanwhile, 1,97,92,143 samples have been tested for COVID-19 in labs operational across the state. While 17,29,816 persons are under home quarantine, 17,863 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centres. Moreover, the COVID-19 positivity rate, recovery rate and fatality rate in Maharashtra stand at 14.21 per cent, 85.34 per cent and 1.94 per cent respectively.

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