KARACHI: Days after a suspected case of Omicron virus was detected in Karachi, Agha Khan University Hospital (AKUH) on Monday confirmed the presence of the Omicron variant in a patient through gene-sequencing.
“Gene sequencing at AKUH has confirmed the presence of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in the first patient,” reads the statement from the AKUH. According to the statement, the ‘infected’ patient was at home and doing well.
“However, no other patients at the hospital have been confirmed to have the Omicron variant”, AKUH added. The National Institute of Health (NIH) also confirmed the development via a series of tweets on Twitter as well.
NIH said this is the “first confirmed case but continued surveillance of identified samples is in place to identify trends”. The health institute stressed the importance of getting vaccinated to stay protected from existing and new coronavirus variants.
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. This is the first confirmed case but continued surveillance of suspected samples is in place to identify the trends.
— NIH Pakistan (@NIH_Pakistan) December 13, 2021
Meanwhile, the National Command and Operation Center has urged the people of Pakistan to vaccinate for protection against the serious effects of existing and new variants.
In wake of recent confirmation of Omicron in Pakistan, the importance of getting vaccinated to protect from serious effects of existing and new variants is further highlighted. Please get yourself completely vaccinated.
— NCOC (@OfficialNcoc) December 13, 2021
On Dec 8, the Sindh government had claimed that though genomic study had to be done for confirmation, the way the virus was behaving in a female patient in Karachi seemed it was the Omicron.
“The Omicron variant spreads quickly, but recent reports from South Africa suggest that the variant does not cause serious illness or a high number of deaths,” the Sindh Health minister had said at the time.
However, on Dec 9, the NIH issued a clarification stating that the sample was yet to be confirmed as Omicron through whole-genome sequencing, adding it would be obtained from the Sindh government.
‘Spreads faster’
A day earlier, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the Omicron coronavirus variant is more transmissible than the Delta strain and reduces vaccine efficacy but causes less severe symptoms according to early data.
The WHO said Omicron had spread to 63 countries as of December 9. Faster transmission was noted in South Africa, where Delta is less prevalent, and in Britain, where Delta is the dominant strain.
Early evidence suggests Omicron causes “a reduction in vaccine efficacy against infection and transmission”, the WHO said in a technical brief. Omicron infections have so far caused “mild” illness or asymptomatic cases, but the WHO said the data was insufficient to establish the variant’s clinical severity.
