Chennai: Amid the Omicron scare, Tamilnadu government has urged the Union government to issue speedy approval to the whole genome sequencing lab set up by the State in Chennai for issuance of Omicron test result confirmation.
The issue has been taken up with the visiting multi-disciplinary team of experts from the Union Health Ministry.
Currently, the confirmation for Omicron has to come from the National Institute of Virology, Pune, and from labs in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Hence, it takes over ten days to get the confirmation, by when the patient could be discharged. Sources said Tamilnadu government has spent Rs 4 crore to set up the lab in Chennai.
As part of the precautionary measures against the spread of Covid-19, especially the Omicron variant, more than 1.15 lakh beds are being readied at the government and private hospitals across Tamilnadu. Orders have been issued to provide special Covid-19 centres with 50,000 more beds.