PESHAWAR: The Sindh health department on Thursday reported six more ‘suspected’ cases of the high contagious variant of Coronavirus ‘Omicron’, which is spreading fast across the world.
The health department said that the two of the patients recently returned from South Africa while remaining from the United Kingdom (UK). The samples of the suspected patients have been sent to the National Institute of health, Islamabad.
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The first case of Omicron was reported from Karachi on December 9 and was also confirmed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), while another case was also reported from the same city on 13 December. The victim escaped from the hospital and was later quarantined again. The new variant of the coronavirus was first diagnosed in November in South Africa and then in Hong Kong. After the new variant was detected, the NCOC imposed travel restrictions on various countries including South Africa.
Yesterday, Balochistan health department reported 29 suspected cases of Omicron. The sources said that the suspected patients in Qalat have escaped from quarantined center. The health department via a letter directed the district health officer of Qalat to search the suspected patients and place them quarantine center. The Chief Minister of Balochistan has expressed concern over the Omicron cases in Qalat and instructed health workers to exercise utmost caution.
The health experts said that Omicron is high contagious, but according to reports from South Africa so far, there have not been many deaths from this new strain of the virus. The health experts said that the virus spread because of the non-vaccinated people.
The first patient of Covid-19 in Pakistan was also from Karachi.
Renowned pharmaceutical company Pfizer and BioNtech have claimed that their vaccines doses provide complete protection the new variant. The company said in a brief study that three doses of its vaccine are just as effective against omicron as two doses of any vaccine against the common virus.