Health ministry says British strain not found in Pakistan
A vial of the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) used at The Reservoir nursing facility is shown in West Hartford, Connecticut, US, December 18, 2020. PHOTO: REUTERS
Four people, who recently returned from the UK, tested positive for Covid-19, officials in Peshawar said on Friday, though the national health services ministry insisted that the new variant of the coronavirus which surfaced in Britain earlier this month had not been detected in Pakistan, so far.
The local authorities, in a bid to keep check on the new strain found in Britain, traced 66 of the 102 passengers, who returned to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa during the last one week on the instructions of the federal government.
The District Health Officer (DHO) Peshawar Dr Azmatullah said they traced 51 of the returning passengers, while 32 were tested for the coronavirus. He added that 19 results had been received, of whom, four were positive and eight negative. The remaining results were awaited, he said.
Dr Azmatullah said that the contacts of those passengers were tested positive and among them 3 results came back positive. According to the DHO, the tests were sent to National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad.
In a statement issued in Islamabad, the health services, regulations and coordination ministry would not confirm the emergence of new variant of Covid-19. It added that it remained vigilant about the new British strain of the pandemic and closely monitoring the arrivals from the UK.
”As of today, no such variant of the SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in Pakistan,” it said in a statement issued on Twitter. “The National Institute of Health is sensitive and on alert regarding this new strain for timely detection,” it added.
The Express Tribune has learnt that people from 12 districts, including Mardan, Abbottabad, Swat and Nowshera, travelled to the UK, and at least 102 passengers returned in one week. According to sources, the health department alerted all district officers for identification of the passengers.
A notification issued by the provincial government said all passengers coming from the UK should be tested and quarantined. The province's health department said the UK-borne coronavirus was more severe in terms of its transmission rate than the original one.
Dr Azmatullah said that arrival of passengers from the UK was continuing and the authorities were mulling over keeping them in quarantine.
The announcements came as the country’s national tally of active Covid-19 cases reached 38,511 with 2,152 more people testing positive for the virus with a lesser number of 1,824 patients recovering from it during the last 24 hours.
According to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 85 coronavirus patients, 77 of whom were under treatment in hospitals and eight at their homes or in quarantines, died on Thursday.
A highly infectious new coronavirus variant in Britain has prompted many countries, including Pakistan to shut their borders to travellers from there. The strain, also referred to by some experts as the B.1.1.7 lineage, is not the first new variant of the pandemic virus to emerge.
The B.1.1.7 is stated to be up to 70% more transmissible than the previously dominant strain in the United Kingdom. The governments of Australia, South Africa, Italy and the Netherlands say they detected cases of the new strain.
Several countries have also banned flights from South Africa after the sudden rise in cases linked to the new variant. However, South Africa’s health minister on Friday rejected claims that the new coronavirus variant in the country was more contagious than a similar one spreading in the UK.
“At present, there is no evidence that the 501.V2 (variant) is more transmissible than the United Kingdom variant—as suggested by the British Health Secretary,” Zwelini Mkhize said. “There is also no evidence that (it) causes more severe disease or increased mortality than the UK variant …”
Around 14,000 positive cases were detected on each of the past two days in South Africa, compared with between 8,000 and 10,000 earlier this week. Mkhize said on Wednesday that new restrictions could be necessary to slow the virus’ spread. (WITH INPUT FROM AGENCIES)