KARACHI: Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho today (Friday) has announced that South African and Brazilian variants of the novel coronavirus have been reported in samples taken by the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH).
In a video message issued by the provincial health ministry, Azra Pechuho disclosed that the AKUH collected 13 samples to perform genomic study confirming the variants of the virus.
She added that out of these samples, 10 were of the UK variant, two of the South African variant while the other was found to be of the Brazilian variant. “These strands of Covid-19 have the potential to bring the current healthcare facilities to the brink of collapse,” he added.
Minister for Health & Population Welfare, Dr. @AzraPechuho strongly recommends avoiding crowds & even small social gatherings, as well as travelling unnecessarily. If we dont enforce & follow these protocols we will face a humanitarian crises not unlike that in India #SindhHealth pic.twitter.com/I4ZC2ylqDB
— Health and Population Welfare Department, Sindh (@SindhHealthDpt) April 30, 2021
The health minister added that the fatality rate for the South African and Brazilian strands was also high. “This is an emergency as these variants are not vaccine responsive either,” Dr Pechuho claimed.
She further said the current vaccines being administered across the country may be effective against COVID-19 but are useless when it comes to these variants. “Therefore it is important for everyone to take all necessary precautions and take this seriously,” Dr Pechuho asserted.
Earlier on Wednesday, the provincial health officials confirmed the UK variant of coronavirus, which is fuelling the ongoing third wave of Covid-19 in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkwa provinces, reaching Sindh.
