Role of INSACOG in controlling Corona Virus

The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) is India’s genome surveillance project for the corona virus.

It is a joint initiation of the Union Health Ministry of Health, and Department of Biotechnology (DBT) with the assistance of Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR),

INSACOG is consortium of 38 laboratories to monitor genomic variations in the SARS-CoV-2 by a sentinel sequencing effort which is facilitated by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi under Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).

The data from the laboratories analyzed to study the linkages (if any) between the genomic variants and epidemiological trends and it helps to understand spreading and to strengthen public health interventions across the country to help in breaking the chains of transmission.