Six more suspected cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus have been reported in Karachi, the Sindh Health Department said on Thursday.

According to the health department, four of the patients had recently returned from South Africa while two others arrived from the United Kingdom. The samples of all six patients have been sent for further verification.

On Wednesday, at least 30 suspected cases of the new variant were reported from the Kalat area of Balochistan.

The provincial health department said that the new cases emerged after a patient tested positive for the virus.

Kalat reports 30 suspected Omicron variant cases

"The samples of the suspected Omicron patients have been sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad for genome sequencing," it added.

The health department has directed the district administration to trace the affected patients and isolate them.

On December 9, the first Omicron variant case was detected in Karachi by doctors at a private hospital, which was later confirmed by the NIH, while another case was also reported from the port city on 13 December.

Suspected sample from Karachi is indeed Omicron variant, confirms NIH

"The NIH has been able to confirm (via whole genome sequencing) that a recently suspected sample from Karachi is indeed the ‘Omicron variant’ of SARS-CoV2," NIH said in a tweet.

"This is the first confirmed case but continued surveillance of suspected samples is in place to identify the trends," it added.

In another tweet, NIH stressed the importance of getting vaccinated to protect from the serious effects of existing and new variants. The institute urged the citizens to get vaccinated according to guidelines issued by the National Command and Operation Centre.