KARACHI: The Sindh government, just to ascertain prevalence of Omicron in the province, conducted 351 tests of which 175 were detected as Omicron, which constitutes 50 percent of the tests besides delta and other variants.

This was told in a meeting held under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah here at CM House on Monday.

The meeting was attended by Minister Health Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Advisor law Murtaza Wahab, Parliamentary Secretary on Health Qasim Soomro, acting Chief Secretary Qazi Shahid Pervez, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary Health Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Dr Ari of Indus Hospital and other concerned officers.

The meeting was told that 351 samples were tested to ascertain the existence of Omicron variant in the province against which 175 cases of Omicron were detected.

It was also pointed out that out of 175, few had travel history predominantly from the UK, Dubai, USA, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Nairobi and Angola.

It was pointed out that during last 30 days, the number of COVID cases have started increasing. On December 3, 2021, 261 new cases were detected which kept on showing an upward trend and finally on January 2, 2022 reached 403.

At this, the Chief Minister said that the situation was critical and urged the health department to start an extensive vaccination drive and increase tests of the people all over Sindh.

He urged the people of the province to adopt precautionary measures, otherwise his government would have to take strict measures.

The meeting was told that during last 30 days, 51 patients died. To a question, the CM was informed that so far 29,579,471 vaccinations have been administered all over the province.