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ISLAMABAD: Health authorities have confirmed one of the three dominant strains of COVID-19 in China and Omicron’s subvariant XBB’s presence in Pakistan by way of genome sequencing. Officials of National Institute of Health (NIH) and Aga Khan University, however, maintained that the country was safe from the highly infectious strain — BF.7.
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NIH officials in Islamabad were quoted as saying “genomic surveillance is underway at NIH Islamabad. However, due to low positivity, only a few samples are available for sequencing. Our last batch showed increased cases of Omicron XBB.”
While reiterating that there was no imminent threat of any major COVID-19 wave in Pakistan, officials said “we are continuously monitoring the situation and prepared for any situation.”
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In another development, scientists at Aga Khan University also confirmed that they had detected and reported the XBB sub-variant of the Omicron variant to the authorities in the country but added that they had not yet seen other two sub-variants, including BF.7 in the country.
Infectious diseases expert Dr Faisal Sultan was quoted as saying that in addition to the XBB variant, the highly infectious BF.7 would also be present and circulating in the country as there were no travel restrictions in place to prevent the movement of the COVID-19 virus.
Another infectious disease expert from Aga Khan University, Dr Faisal Mehmood was also quoted as saying that there was no doubt about the presence of both the XBB and BF.7 variants in Pakistan but claimed that due to mix and match of vaccines, especially mRNA vaccines, people had acquired better immunity as compared to the Chinese population.
Professor Saeed Khan, senior molecular scientist and professor of pathology at Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) Karachi, has been quoted as saying that BF.7 variant has not yet entered Pakistan, saying once BF.7 gets into Pakistan, sharp surge in COVID-19 cases would be seen which would announce its presence in the country.
