Pakistan Confirms New COVID-19 Variant

Pakistan has confirmed 3 cases of the new variant of COVID-19 on Tuesday.

According to an official statement by Sindh Health Department, samples of 12 UK returnees were taken for genotyping and 6 of them were positive. Out of these, 3 showed resemblance with the new COVID-19 variant. Genotyping in the first place also revealed 95% match with the UK COVID-19 variant. These samples will go through another round of genotyping. Meanwhile, the contact tracing has been done and those who came in contact with these people have been asked to isolate.

Earlier, World Health Organization said that it is in contact with authorities in UK and public will be updated as soon as they learn more about the new virus strain.

The new COVID-19 variant is rapidly spreading in the Britain. Though this is not the first variant of COVID-19, however, it is said to be 70% more transmissible than the previous strains. With 23 mutations in its genetic code, the virus is referred to as B.1.1.7 lineage.

Pakistan is going through an intense second wave of COVID-19 where there are 39,599 active cases and 63 people have lost their lives in the last 24 hours. We went for a complete lockdown, shutting down all businesses and cities to minimize loss during the first wave and saw a good response overall. Let us see how the government and authorities deal with the second wave.

What do you think we should do to deal with the new variant of COVID-19. Share your opinions with us in comments.