WITH the new Covid-19 Omicron variant of concern present in Trinidad and Tobago, Government is increasing capacity to fast track genomic testing in order to better trace the variant.
Speaking at the Ministry of Health’s virtual media conference on Monday, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said funds to the value of $500,000 were allocated to the University of the West Indies (UWI) laboratory which does not fall under the ministry’s purview.
He said the UWI lab developed the capacity to do genomic sequencing in T&T and for CARICOM in an initial research project. Since then, the project was expanded and the UWI lab headed by Professor Christine Carrington was now doing genomic sequencing in larger numbers.
Deyalsingh said, “I visited the lab a couple of times because I was interested in the project, which was a research project at the time to transition it into something more robust, to help us in our Covid responses.”
Information from the genomic testing from UWI lab is sent to a global database- the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID) which started in 2009 to sequence the H1N1 virus commonly called the swine flu. Since then, it has progressed and today was one of the biggest Covid-19 databases, Deyalsingh said.
With Government’s allocation, Deyalsingh said the lab would have been able to significantly enhance the capacity to move from five to about 100 samples at a time with the purchase of more updated equipment.
The minister also said UWI was also in discussion with public health officials in England to acquire more resources in genomic sequencing.
Both UWI lab and CARPHA have the research capacity and qualifications to run a genomic sequence that required “high tech, high intellectual pursuits,” Deyalsingh said.
