Pakistan confirms first Omicron case

Hospital says patient isolated at home, doing well; no further cases detected so far

KARACHI:

Days after a suspected case of Omicron virus was detected in Karachi, Agha Khan University Hospital (AKUH) on Monday confirmed the presence of the Omicron variant in an unvaccinated Covid-19 patient.

In a statement, the hospital said the patient was isolated at home and doing well. The statement added that so far only one case of the variant has been detected in the country.

The National Institute of Health, Islamabad has been able to confirm that a recently suspected sample from Karachi is indeed the ‘Omicron variant’ of SARS-CoV2. This is the first confirmed case but continued surveillance of identified samples is in place to identify trends.

— NCOC (@OfficialNcoc) December 13, 2021

The Omicron case was also confirmed by the National Institue of Health in the federal capital. NIMS said this is the "first confirmed case but continued surveillance of identified samples is in place to identify trends".

In wake of recent confirmation of Omicron in Pakistan, the importance of getting vaccinated to protect from serious effects of existing and new variants is further highlighted. Please get yourself completely vaccinated.

— NCOC (@OfficialNcoc) December 13, 2021

The NCOC urged people to vaccinate for protection against the serious effects of existing and new variants. 

On Thursday, Pakistan detected its first ‘suspected’ case of the Omicron variant in Karachi. “The genome sequencing has not been done as of now, but we suspect it to be the Omicron variant due to the manner in which the virus is behaving,” the Sindh health minister had stated.

“The Omicron variant spreads quickly, but recent reports from South Africa suggest that the variant does not cause serious illness or a high number of deaths,” the minister had said at the time.

Read No escaping from Omicron variant, warns NCOC

Last week, the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) had announced travel restrictions in the wake of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, adding eight more countries, mostly European, in Category C, banning in-bound passengers.

With the latest expansion, the number of countries on Category C increased from seven to 15.

The list comprises The Netherlands, Hungary, Ireland, Croatia, Ukraine, Slovenia, Vietnam, Poland, South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

The WHO has been in constant touch with the government of Pakistan following the reports of suspected cases of the Omicron variant, while other international and aviation authorities are also keeping an eye on Pakistan.

In case the report comes back positive and the presence of variant is confirmed, travel bans may also be imposed on the country and the government may take strong lockdown measures.

On November 26, the WHO named the new Covid-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as 'Omicron'. The WHO has classified Omicron as a 'variant of concern'.

Dozens of countries have imposed travel restrictions on the southern African nations since the mutation was discovered.