Omicron threat: Important decisions to be taken as PM summons NCC meeting

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has summoned a meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC) for COVID-19 on Friday as key decisions are expected from the meeting in the wake of Omicron case, a new heavily mutated Covid-19 strain, ARY News reported on Thursday.

The NCC meeting summoned by Prime Minister Imran Khan will be held at the PM House on Friday at 3:00:pm. The meeting would be briefed on the nationwide COVID-19 situation.

The meeting would be attended by NCOC officials, federal ministers and other concerned representatives.

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) would brief NCC about the steps being taken to control the spread of Omicron cases.

Sources said that key decision would be taken in NCC meeting in wake of Covid-19 situation in the country amid Omicron threat.

Omicron cases Pakistan

Six more suspected cases of Omicron, the new variant of Covid-19, surfaced in Karachi on Thursday.

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 the port city from Britain while the rest from South Africa where this strain of the deadly virus was first discovered, they added.

The sources said the patients’ samples have been sent to a private hospital for genome sequencing – a study that confirms the exact variant of the virus – and they have been moved to a quarantine centre.

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.

Also Read: Balochistan reports 12 suspected cases of Omicron variant

In a Twitter statement, the NIH 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.”