Sindh Health Secretary Kazim Jatoi said Monday that four more cases of the Indian variant of the coronavirus have been detected in Pakistan, taking the total number of cases to five.
All four people had returned from the Gulf and tested positive upon arrival at the Karachi airport.
“Three of them had come from Iraq while another arrived from Muscat,” Jatoi said, adding that three belong to Karachi and one is from Ghotki.
They have been quarantined and tests of their family members are also being conducted, he said.
A day earlier, the National Institute of Health said that a passenger with Indian variant of coronavirus was reached Pakistan on May 8.
The NIH in a statement has issued the details of a case of Indian coronavirus strain diagnosed in Pakistan.
The passenger underwent a rapid coronavirus test at a Pakistan’s airport and the Indian variant of the virus confirmed in him in the diagnosis, NIH stated.
The infected passenger was shifted to a quarantine centre of the government, sources said. “The family members of the passenger were also tested to detect the virus but their tests were found negative,” according to the NIH.
“Covid-19 testing of the infected person at the quarantine centre confirmed the Indian variant and minor symptoms were also found in the passenger,” the NIH said in its statement.
“The passenger was discharged from the quarantine facility and allowed to go home after his recovery from the disease,” the National Institute of Health said.
The NIH on Friday confirmed the first case of the more contagious Covid-19 variant first discovered in India.
The NIH spokesman said that Indian strain was found in samples the NIH received for testing. The NIH also confirmed seven cases of South African Covid-19 variant detected in Pakistan in the ongoing month.
WHAT IS THE INDIA VARIANT?
Viruses mutate all the time, producing different versions or variants of themselves.
Most of these mutations are insignificant – and some may even make the virus less dangerous – but others can make it more contagious and harder to vaccinate against.
This variant – officially known as B.1.617 – was first detected in India in October.
