ISLAMABAD: The National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad has confirmed the detection of first case of “Omicron variant” in Pakistan. According to a statement issued by the NIH here on Monday, “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”.
Following the detection of the first case of Omicron variant in the country, the federal government has launched from Monday door-to-door coronavirus and polio vaccination drive in 31 districts of the country in a bid to control the spread of diseases.
Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 in Pakistan, the country so far has detected a total 1,289,293 Covid-19 cases of which 1,251,409 recoveries. The country over the past 24 hours has confirmed 244 new Covid-19 cases and six more deaths, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Monday.
The country has 9,048 active cases including 731 in critical condition. According to the NCOC data, the pandemic killed six people on Sunday, increasing the overall death toll to 28,836. Sindh is the most-affected province of the country in terms of the number of cases with 478,017 infections, followed by the Punjab, which has reported 443,886 cases so far.
As far as the polio cases are concerned, Pakistan in the past 10 months has not reported any polio case but at present, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world with reported polio cases. Owing to the government’s failure to control the surge of polio cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) imposed the polio-related travel restrictions on Pakistan in May 2014, which recently has been extended for three months.
The WHO deemed Pakistan and Afghanistan to be dangerous countries in a recent statement by the Thirtieth Polio IHR Emergency Committee, stating that the two countries have failed to eradicate polio fully and may be responsible for the virus’s global spread.
In the past 11 months, Pakistan has made remarkable strides against polio, as the incidence of Wild Polio Virus (WPV1) cases has decreased to zero in the previous 10 months, down from 84 reported cases in 2020.
According to the WHO, Afghanistan is the primary source of Wild Polio Virus, which enters Pakistan via refugee migration. This poses a serious threat to Pakistan. Polio surveillance will continue in Pakistan for an additional three months, and Pakistanis traveling overseas will be required to prove polio immunisation.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021