NIH Confirms Pakistan’s First Case of COVID-19 Omicron Variant

The National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad has confirmed Pakistan’s first case of the highly-mutated Omicron variant of the Coronavirus through genomic sequencing.

The development comes a couple of days after the Sindh health department sent a sample of an unvaccinated 57-year-old woman, who is a resident of Karachi, to the NIH on suspicion of the Omicron strain.

In an official statement, NIH said that the recently suspected sample from Karachi is indeed the ‘Omicron variant’ of SARS-COV-2, adding that this is the first confirmed case but continued surveillance of suspected samples is in place to identify the trends.

On the other hand, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) has noted that vaccination is vital for protection against existing and new variants of Coronavirus, urging the public to get vaccinated at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Sindh’s health ministry has launched a door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination drive in Jamshed Town and other adjoining areas in East Karachi.

Health Minister, Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho, said that the country’s first Omicron patient is a resident of Jamshed Town and the vaccination drive has been launched to prevent the community transmission of the highly mutated variant.

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