The Ministry of Health has been sending samples of SARS-CoV2 patients to the laboratory at the Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine of Faculty of Medical Sciences of University of Sri Jayewardenepura which has been carrying out sequencing of the SARS-CoV2 viruses since the onset of the epidemic in Sri Lanka. Several samples from those who came from the UK were sent to us and we have identified the new UK SARS-CoV2 variant in one of the samples. This virus has this specific strain defining mutations, N501Y, P681H, 69-70de and thus belongs to the Pangolin lineage B.1.1.7.
The University of Sri Jayewardenepura is most happy to support the Ministry of Health in sequencing the virus variants with the emergence of different types of novel SARS-CoV2 variants from several countries such as South Africa, Malaysia and Japan.
Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine,
Faculty of Medical Sciences,
University of Sri Jayewardenepura
