Plans afoot for local variant testing facility
PROPOSALS to establish a variant testing facility should be ready to submit to senior leadership teams early next week.
Director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink confirmed that a document is being prepared to develop on-island genome sequencing and rapidly identify any Covid-19 mutations, such as the new Breton variant. Identifying variants would allow authorities to enact targeted safety measures.
Staff now have the training and expertise to identify Covid molecules, so the facility would be technically possible, Dr Brink said.
‘We’ve developed our molecular capacity and developed local people, which I think is really fantastic because our offering is so much greater than it was at the start of the pandemic.’
Costs to establish a sequencing facility will be compared to the premiums charged for sending samples to the UK, which can take two weeks to return.
Quick and informed decisions should avoid extreme safety restrictions and the resulting economic impacts, so the facility is expected to be cost-effective.
This week the Breton variant was identified in Lannion, Brittany, after a cluster of hospital patients with typical Covid symptoms were negative on PCR tests.
Dr Brink said that Bailiwick tests were far more robust because multiple regions of the viral genome are targeted and confirmed with a second test.
‘When we designed our diagnostic testing we always said that we would never, ever target one region of the viral genome, because that then makes your testing fragile to any genetic variation of the virus.
‘I don’t think there is data out yet on transmissibility or virulence [of the Breton variant], but of course this is all very new, and we will be looking at it in a lot of detail in the days to come.’
Mapping out the areas targeted will enable variant testers to identify degrees of genetic mismatch, to see how testing procedures can pick them up.
