Omicron spreading rapidly in Karachi: Health department

KARACHI: Sindh health department on Monday has said that the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 is spreading rapidly in Karachi as the city has reported 191 cases of the variant that was first found in South Africa.

According to the report of the health department, 49 new Omicron cases have been reported in Karachi’s South district, while 83 have been logged from district East so far.

Malir, 4, Korangi, 2, West four, Central district of the port city has reported 13 cases of the new variant so far, while 25 Omicron cases have been reported from the sorrounding areas of Karachi airport.

Meanwhile, as many as 3,410 tests were carried out in Karachi during last week to detect the coronavirus. Out of 3,410 samples, 3,399 turned out to be positive.

The provincial health department said positivity ratio remained 9.96% in Karachi during the last week.

The overall positivity ratio of COVID-19 cases in Sindh was recorded at 4.28pc during the last 7 days. Overall 98,450 tests were conducted out of which 4,215 samples were confirmed with COVID-19.

COVID-19 tally in Pakistan

The fifth wave of the COVID-19 is intensifying with every passing as Pakistan reported 1,649 fresh cases of the pandemic during the past 24 hours.

According to the latest figures shared by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), a total of 45,002 samples were tested during this period, out of which 1,649 turned out to be positive, showing a national positivity rate of 3.66 per cent as compared to yesterday’s 3.16%.