The most awaited lab, meant for the genome sequencing of the Coronavirus, is expected to start within a week at the civic-run Kasturba hospital. The lab’s work is expected to give direction in the prevention of the spread of Covid-19 and formalise a treatment protocol. The BMC currently sends samples to a national centre and the results take two to three months to arrive. With the lab, the civic body can get results within two to three days.

Two weeks ago, results from the National Institute of Virology at Pune showed that the city had two cases of the Delta Plus variant, which created panic. Civic officials said that the cases were from April and both patients recovered. With the long processing time of two months, tracing close contacts and containing the spread of the virus becomes a difficult task.