Pakistan confirms first case of COVID-19 omicron variant in Karachi

A woman wears a protective face mask as she walks along a road, as the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Karachi, Pakistan, July 7, 2020. (REUTERS/File)

• Heath officials say patient had no travel history, conclude variant was already present in Pakistan in other patients
• Omicron variant, first detected in South Africa last month, has been found in at least two dozen countries since

KARACHI: Pakistan on Monday confirmed its first case of the COVID-19 omicron variant in a woman in Karachi with no history of travel, leading doctors to conclude that the new strain was already present in Pakistan and there were possibly other patients.
The country’s National Institute of Health (NIH) also confirmed the case.
The omicron variant, which was first detected in South Africa last month, has been found in at least two dozen countries since. The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged countries to boost health care capacity and vaccinate people to fight a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the new variant.
“Gene sequencing at AKUH has confirmed the presence of the COVID-19 omicron variant in the first patient,” a spokesperson at the Aga Khan University Hospital, one of the country’s leading health facilities, said in a statement. “The patient is at home and doing well. So far, no other patients with COVID-19 omicron have been identified at AKUH.”
The NIH said in a tweet:
“The NIH has been able to confirm ... that a recently suspected sample from Karachi is indeed the ‘omicron variant. This is the first confirmed case but continued surveillance of suspected samples is in place to identify the trends.”
Dr. Zahra Hasan at AKUH said the patient with omicron had very mild symptoms and was recovering well.
“We cannot say if the variant has been developed by local mutation as we have not any evidences but all we can say is that the patient has no traveling history and has got it from someone else locally. We can also say that the virus was present in Pakistan before this woman got infected,” Hasan told Arab News.
Last week, Sindh Health Minister Dr. Azra Pechuho said a suspected omicron case had surfaced in Karachi but it would take up to two weeks to confirm the case through genomic study.
Speaking to Arab News, Dr. Qaiser Sajjad, Secretary General of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), said he had been in contact with doctors from around 30 countries, including Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association who first reported an omicron case, and they said no patient with the new variant had gone to Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
“It’s good that the omicron variant is not lethal like previous variants,” Sajjad said, “but the virus will keep mutating and new variants will come in the future for which vaccination of upto 80 percent of the world’s population is mandatory.”
Pakistan this month placed travel restrictions on several countries in southern Africa in the wake of the discovery of the variant.