Bhubaneswar: The conclusions drawn in a State Bank of India (SBI) research report that the second wave of Covid-19 in India could last up to 100 days and peak in mid-April has certainly come as a major concern as daily cases are witnessing a steep rise in several States across the country including Odisha.
Director, Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) in Bhubaneswar, Ajay Parida, on Friday admitted that the positivity rate has registered an increase in Odisha. However, whether the present rise in daily cases was on account of any variant of the virus would be known only after proper tests, he said.
Parida categorically ruled out presence of the Punjab strain of Covid-19 in Odisha.
“Until we conducted a detail genome sequencing, we cannot say about the presence of any new or mutated strain. At present, genome sequencing of 222 samples is underway and we are expecting a detail report in the next day or two. Only after a comprehensive analysis, we can which strain is active in Odisha, if any,” said Parida.
According to Parida, the samples collected in January, February and March have been sent for genome sequencing to ascertain whether the cases detected in Odisha are of UK, South Africa or Brazilian variants.
As per National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) report which was released on Wednesday, three persons from Odisha, who had tested positive for Covid-19 in December, were found carrying UK variant of Covid-19 virus. The tests were conducted in Pune.
Later, all genome sequencing were conducted by ILS in Bhubaneswar. Parida informed that one person from Nuapada was found with the double mutation variant and three cases were of single mutation.
In its report, NCDC said that a total of 771 cases of coronavirus variants were detected in 18 states of which 736 were UK variant, 34 were of South Africa and one was Brazilian variant in the country.
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