Covid-19 cases resurge in Parts of Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Multiple deaths from coronavirus in a single day after a month-long hiatus raise concerns. “Two patients died on the same day”, said an official of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).
A six-year-old child suffering from blood cancer died due to Covid-19 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The virus claimed the life of a 75-year-old person in Sindh. An official of the Ministry of National Health Services said, requesting anonymity.
While refuting reports about detection of a new subvariant of Covid-19, the NIH on Wednesday tweeted, “NCOC-NIH refutes the news of any new Covid-19 subvariant. Currently, XBB Omicron subvariant is already the dominant variant for the last 3 months. NCOC is closely monitoring the situation.”
The NIH said Pakistan reported 29 cases of the XBB variant since its appearance. But the institute categorically denied that this is the BF.7 variant which is spreading in China.
While Health ministry official said that health centers are detecting Covid-19 cases on a daily basis. But it was not possible to confirm if they were of XBB or any other variants.
The official said previously just a few deaths were being reported every week due to which the weekly mortality rate remained nearly zero.
“However, two deaths in a single day is a caution for us, as the number of cases and deaths can increase in the coming days. Covid-19 virus belongs to a family of influenza virus and it becomes more active during winter season,” he added.
The NCOC data showed 5,126 tests were conducted across the country in 24 hours and 22 of the samples were found positive. Overall, the positivity rate remained 0.43 per cent.
“It requires genome sequencing which is a lengthy process. And it takes up to three days to identify that sample belongs to which subvariant,” he added.
