Islamabad reports first case of Omicron Covid variant
- By Web Desk -
- Dec 25, 2021
Islamabad has reported the first case of new COVID-19 strain, Omicron, Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Hamza Shafqaat confirmed on Sunday.
The patient, according to DC Islamabad, has no prior international travel history but recently travelled to Karachi.
“The patient has travel history from Karachi. We are tracing all his contacts now. Everyone plz get vaccinated and follow SOPs,” he tweeted.
First case of #OmicronVariant detected in Islamabad. The patient has travel history from Karachi. We are tracing all his contacts now. Everyone plz get vaccinated and follow SOPs
— Office of Deputy Commissioner Islamabad (@dcislamabad) December 25, 2021
On Thursday, six more suspected cases of Omicron were surfaced in Karachi.
The sources in the provincial health department said the patients who are suspected to be carrying the Omicron variant have a travel history. Two of them arrived in Karachi from Britain while the rest from South Africa where this strain of the virus was first discovered.
Read More: SINDH NOTIFIES NEW SOPS TO CURTAIL OMICRON VARIANT OF COVID-19
On Dec 13, the National Institute of Health (NIH) confirmed Pakistan’s first case of Covid-19 Omicron variant in a woman patient from the port city.
In a Twitter statement, the NIH had said it has been able to “confirm (via whole genome sequencing) that a recently suspected sample from Karachi is indeed the ‘Omicron variant’ of SARS-CoV2.”
“This is the first confirmed case but continued surveillance of suspected samples is in place to identify the trends,” it added.