NIH confirms first Omicron variant case in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: National Institute of Health (NIH) on Monday confirmed first case of coronavirus Omicron variant in Pakistan.

According to NIH, first case has been detected in a woman in Karachi.

“The NIH has been able to confirm … that a recently suspected sample from Karachi is indeed the  Omicron variant ,” the NIH said in a Tweet. “This is the first confirmed case but continued surveillance of suspected samples is in place to identify the trends.”

The institute has stressed that vaccination against the virus is mandatory to stay safe from coronavirus.

On the other hand, World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the Omicron coronavirus variant is more transmissible than the Delta strain.

The Delta variant, first identified in India earlier this year, is responsible for most of the world’s coronavirus infections.

But South Africa’s discovery of Omicron — which has a large number of mutations — last month prompted countries around the world to impose travel bans on southern African countries and reintroduce domestic restrictions to slow its spread.

The WHO said Omicron had spread to 63 countries as of December 9. Faster transmission was noted in South Africa, where Delta is less prevalent, and in Britain, where Delta is the dominant strain.

But it stressed that a lack of data meant it could not say if Omicron’s rate of transmission was because it was less prone to immune responses, higher transmissibility or a combination of both.

Omicron infections have so far caused “mild” illness or asymptomatic cases, but the WHO said the data was insufficient to establish the variant’s clinical severity.

South Africa reported Omicron to the WHO on November 24. Vaccine manufacturers Pfizer/BioNTech last week said three doses of their jabs were still effective against Omicron.

Countries with sufficient vaccine supplies such as Britain and France have encouraged their populations to receive a third “booster” jab to fight Omicron.

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