(Karachi) Attorney General of Pakistan, Khalid Javed has tested positive for a new COVID-19 variant, local media reported on Sunday.

As per details, new COVID variant, SARS-CoV-2, has been detected in Barrister Khalid Javed.

Javed recently represented the government before a larger bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed in hearing of the presidential reference seeking the court’s opinion over open ballot vote in the Senate election.

Earlier in January, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) had confirmed the two cases of the highly contagious coronavirus variant that first emerged in the UK have been detected in Pakistan.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) had examined a number of samples taken from the UK return travellers suspected to be carrying the new Covid-19 variant, out of which two matched with the variant, named B117.

The variant was first detected in Britain in December last year, the NCOC said, adding it has also been found in 31 other countries. It said Pakistani citizens returning from the UK need to take a mandatory PCR test for the new strain of the virus.