Pakistan detects China’s dominant Covid strain in its sample: NIH
An Omicron’s subvariant XBB, believed to be one of the three strains driving the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in China and other countries, has been detected in Pakistan, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Aga Khan University.
NIH and Aga Khan University officials said genome sequencing has confirmed the XBB variant. They added the country, however, is safe from the highly infectious strain BF.7.
Former Federal Health Advisor Dr Faisal Sultan believes that the highly infectious BF.7 would also be present and circulating in the country as there were no travel restrictions in place to prevent the movement of the COVID-19 virus.
Earlier, Border Health Services (BHS) directed airport authorities to tighten COVID-19 screening for all international travellers arriving in Pakistan, following a worldwide resurgence in cases of a new variant “BF.7”, especially in China and India.
The latest data from the National Institute of Health (NIH) reveals that at least 15 new cases were reported during the last 24 hours in Pakistan. The case positivity ratio remained below 1 percent, and no death was reported from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours.
