KARACHI: Pakistan has recently reported the first case of Omicron, the new COVID-19 variant, in a female patient in Karachi, Sindh Health Department confirmed.
According to the health authorities, Aga Khan Hospital in Karachi reported the first case of the variant in a 65-year-old female patient with no travel history. The patient was unvaccinated and possessed no COVID-19 symptoms.
The health department disclosed that the woman was quarantined at home, and efforts continued to conduct contact tracing to rule out more infections.
According to the city health authorities, the rapid response team was "taken on board immediately" for tracing, testing, quarantining, vaccination and other measures to control the infection's spread as per the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). However, Deputy commissioner East Karachi was asked for a micro smart lockdown.
Earlier, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho said a genomic study was being carried out to confirm a woman with a suspected case of the new coronavirus variant Omicron in Karachi.
In a video message earlier, she said that the genomic study of the coronavirus patient's sample had not been conducted, but "the way the virus is behaving, it seems like it is Omicron."
