Kyrgyzstan will begin to independently identify COVID-19 mutations that are spreading in the republic. Two laboratories were opened in the country for this purpose. The Health Minister of Kyrgyzstan Alymkadyr Beishenaliev reported.
More than 17 laboratories for conducting PCR tests have been opened in Kyrgyzstan over two years since the emergence of the coronavirus, he said.
«But during this time there have been many mutations of the COVID-19 virus. To determine the type of mutated virus in the country, we send tests to Novosibirsk every week and wait for 10 days. In December 2020, I met with the head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova and asked her to help us open laboratories in Kyrgyzstan to identify the mutated forms of the coronavirus,» Alymkadyr Beishenaliev said.
He noted that two laboratories for sequencing of strains of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus — in the National Center of Phthisiology and the Department of Disease Prevention and State Sanitary-Epidemiological Surveillance — were opened in May with the help of the Russian side.
«Since May, these laboratories began to send results on the detection of new strains of coronavirus in the country to Novosibirsk. The last data were sent in October. Tests are still being conducted. Our specialists are being trained. In the near future, we will start identifying coronavirus variants spread in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic on our own,» the Minister Alymkadyr Beishenaliev concluded.