President Murmu likely to lay foundation stone of NIV Dibrugarh, Jabalpur virtually on Oct13

President Droupadi Murmu is likely to lay the foundation stone of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Assam's Dibrugarh and Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur virtually on Thursday, said sources.

As part of this massive initiative, four Zonal National Institute of Virology (NIV) will be created to cater to four major geographical regions of the country along with the existing NIV Pune.

The ICMR-NIV South zone unit in Bengaluru was recently inaugurated by President Murmu on September 27.

According to the sources, now, new NIV laboratories will be established in other zones like East and Central. "President Murmu is likely to lay the foundation stone of NIV laboratories in Assam's Dibrugarh and Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur virtually on Thursday," said sources.

It said that the new NIV laboratories will help in increasing the laboratory capacities of the viral research diagnostic laboratories.

"The new NIV laboratories to be established at East Zone in Assam's Dibrugarh and Central Zone in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur will help in increasing the laboratory capacities of the viral research diagnostic laboratories (VRDLs) in respective zonal regions as well as collaborate with other premier academic and research institutions, as well as major medical colleges," source told ANI.

The sources further said that these institutes will be able to provide training in cutting-edge technologies.

"These institutes will be able to provide training in cutting-edge technologies including whole genome sequencing. The emphasis is also on performing surveillance for vaccine-preventable diseases such as poliomyelitis, mumps and rubella which are planned for elimination or prevention," said the source.

These NIV units are uniquely positioned across the geography of the country, to undertake diagnostic and research efforts. These units will have state-of-the-art biosafety level laboratories and training facilities to handle viral diseases of higher bio-risk and arthropod-borne diseases that continue to be a burden for our country.

These NIVs will also provide prompt diagnosis and investigation of any potential novel pathogens that could emerge in respective zones and will jointly contribute towards further improving the diagnostic capabilities and bio-surveillance mechanisms in the country.

"ICMR-NIV has contributed in further diagnostic innovations, validating many "Made-in-India" technologies and further contributed very significantly to the development of India's indigenous efficacious vaccine, COVAXIN," the sources further said

The sources said that as a part of COVID-19 challenges, ICMR-NIV undertook the humongous task of training the nationwide network of VRDL network of diagnostic laboratories (VRDLs) across the country for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis.

With an outlay of Rs 64,180 crores, the PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM), announced in the Budget 2021-22, is the largest Pan-India Health Infrastructure Scheme that aims to address India's emergent Public Health issues, the source added.

( With inputs from ANI )