ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is likely to face the fifth wave of Covid-19 in the middle of February 2022, which would trigger new cases above 3,000 a day.
Number of cases of new Covid variant Omicron are increasing in Pakistan daily and next two months appear crucial for the vulnerable people.
So far, the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad has confirmed 75 cases of the Omicron variant by Dec 28, 2021. About cases were reported in 33 Karachi while 17 cases of the Omicron variant have been reported in Islamabad and 13 in Lahore.
Health experts said most of the Omicron variant cases were ‘asymptomatic’, which indicates that it could be spreading silently in major cities where only a few labs had the capacity to pick the suspected cases and then report it to the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, and the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) for confirmation through Whole Genome Sequencing.
Health experts, therefore, urged the unvaccinated Pakistanis to get themselves vaccinated as soon as possible to stay safe from the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) Karachi and the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) have detected several suspected Omicron variant cases and their experts trying to confirm cases through whole genome sequencing.
According to the molecular genetics experts, no commercial lab in Karachi or anywhere in the country was detecting the Omicron variant although its kit was now available in the country.
The “kit for the detection of Omicron variant is available in market like the kit for detection of Delta variant. Only the research labs at major varsities are doing the detection through the whole genome sequencing”, Dr. Muhammad Zohaib, a molecular scientist at the Children’s Hospital Karachi, said.
