ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: The National Institute of Health (NIH) and Agha Khan University Hospital (AKUH) today confirmed the first Omicron Covid variant case in Pakistan.
NIH and AKUH said the Pakistan’s first ever case of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in a patient through gene-sequencing has been detected today.
“Gene sequencing at AKUH has confirmed the presence of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in the first patient,” reads the statement from the AKUH. “The patient is at home and doing well. So far, no other patients with COVID-19 Omicron have been identified at AKUH,” it added.
NIH Pakistan confirmed the development via a series of tweets on Twitter as well.
“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,” it tweeted.
“This is the first confirmed case but continued surveillance of suspected samples is in place to identify the trends.” NIH stressed on the importance of getting vaccinated to stay protected from existing and new coronavirus variants.
