Kerala’s Institute of Advanced Virology (IAV) will start functioning in June 2020. This comes at a time when the state is battling yet another rare virus — the novel Coronavirus, after it fought twice with Nipah.
The Institute has been set up under the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment at Thonnaykkal on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram. According to a statement from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the installation of laboratories, machines and equipments and appointment of scientists will be completed in March and April.
A meeting of stakeholders chaired by the CM held on Thursday assessed the arrangements for functioning of the institute.
The institute, which was inaugurated in February 2019, is for checking and preventing virus-causing diseases. Co-founder and director of Global Virus Network Dr William Hall, is the senior adviser of the IAV.
The functioning of the institute has been conceived in two phases and the first phase will commence in June. A pre-fabricated building of 25,000 square feet has been built for this.
The state’s mission is to develop IAV as an institute on par with National Institute of Virology Pune, which it relies on for the sample testing of virus outbreaks like Nipah and now for coronavirus. The work on the institute was accelerated after the second time a Nipah case was confirmed in June 2019.
The state had gone through a Nipah outbreak in 2018 that claimed 17 lives.
So far, the result from NIV Pune has been considered as final for confirmation of virus infections. On Sunday, February 2, the NIV unit in Alappuzha district received permission for testing samples related to novel Coronavirus infection and according to Health Minister KK Shailaja, sample testing could also begin on Sunday.
The IAV has been envisaged as an institute affiliated with a global virus network – that has 41 countries, with national and international certification.