Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Covid-19 confirmed on Monday that two cases of the highly contagious coronavirus variant that first emerged in the UK have been detected in Pakistan.
It said the National Institute of Health (NIH) examined a number of samples taken from UK return travellers suspected to be carrying the new Covid-19 variant, out of which two matched with the variant, named B117.
The variant was first detected in Britain last month, the NCOC said, adding it has also been found in 31 other countries. It said Pakistani citizens returning from the UK need to take a mandatory PCR test for the new strain of the deadly virus.
Earlier, on December 29, the Sindh Health Department had confirmed that samples of three people returning from the UK showed a 95 per cent match with the new coronavirus variant in the first phase of genotyping.
It said health officials took samples of twelve people upon their return from the UK for genotyping, out of which six turned out to be positive while three showed the new strain of the virus in the first phase. As many as 1,895 new cases of the coronavirus were reported across the country during the previous 24 hours, lifting the national tally of infections to 488,529.
According to the latest update released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 39 more people died during this period, taking the death toll from the highly contagious disease to 10,350.
A total of 30,139 samples were tested, out of which 1,895 turned out to be positive. The national positivity ratio of infections was recorded at 6.28 per cent.
There are a total of 35,722 active cases of the coronavirus while the number of recovered patients stands at 442,457. 2,242 of the Covid-19 patients under treatment are said to be in critical condition. Sindh has thus far reported 218,597 infections, Punjab 140,714, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 59,484, Balochistan 18,247, Islamabad 38,263, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 8,357 and Gilgit Baltistan 4,867.
