Lahore reports first Omicron case

LAHORE: Lahore has reported the first case of new COVID-19 strain, Omicron, Punjab Health Department confirmed on Monday.

According to Punjab Health Secretary Sikandar Baloch, the virus was detected in the 23-year-old man from Lahore. The patient is a resident of Gulberg area.

The health authorities said that the patient has no international travel history.

Moreover, the health department has also sent samples of more than 10 suspected cases of omicron variant to the National Institute of Health, Islamabad.

This Omicron case in Lahore comes a day after Islamabad reported the first case of new COVID-19 strain, Omicron.

The patient, according to DC Islamabad, had 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.

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.”