ISLAMABAD: Islamabad has confirmed its first case of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in a person without links to risk countries, District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Zaeem Zia said Saturday.
The case — Pakistan’s second confirmed infection of the latest variant — was confirmed two weeks after a similar infection was suspected, and later confirmed, in an unvaccinated woman in Karachi.
The latest patient — a 47-year-old man — unlike his predecessor, has no international travel history, it emerged. But Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat said he had recently travelled to Karachi.
First case of #OmicronVariant detected in Islamabad. The patient has travel history from Karachi. We are tracing all his contacts now. Everyone plz get vaccinated and follow SOPs
— Office of Deputy Commissioner Islamabad (@dcislamabad) December 25, 2021
The official said the case was confirmed as Omicron following its gene-sequencing, adding that 10 contacts of the patient were traced and subsequently put under quarantine.
“Amid the looming threats of Omicron variant, our health teams are prepared to respond as they did in previous waves/variants diligently,” he said.
First detected in November, the Omicron variant has now been reported in 57 countries and continues to spread rapidly in South Africa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.
But the latest epidemiological report from WHO said given the Delta variant remains dominant, particularly in Europe and the United States, it is still too early to draw any conclusions about the global impact of Omicron.
Data is still too limited to know with certainty whether Omicron changes the severity of the illness. As of December 6, all 212 confirmed Omicron cases across 18 European Union nations were classed as asymptomatic or mild.
But WHO said: “Even if the severity is equal or potentially even lower than for Delta variant, it is expected that hospitalisations will increase if more people become infected”.
“Further information is needed to fully understand the clinical picture of those infected with the Omicron variant,” the report said.
Pakistan earlier this month placed travel restrictions on several countries in southern Africa in the wake of the discovery of the variant.
OMICRON ‘INEVITABLE’ IN PAKISTAN
In November, Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, who also heads the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), warned the Omicron variant will “inevitably” find its way to Pakistan, adding the nation had “only a few weeks” to contain the latest threat.
“The emergence of new variant makes it even more urgent to vaccinate all eligible citizens 12 years and older,” he said.
“It is my appeal to people, particularly those who’ve gotten one dose to get the second dose because this is one effective thing we have to protect ourselves from the danger of this variant,” the minister added.
The alert followed a WHO communiqué warning its 194 member states the variant is likely to spread internationally, posing a “very high” global risk where Covid-19 surges could have “severe consequences” in some areas.
The UN agency urged them to accelerate vaccination of high-priority groups and to “ensure mitigation plans are in place” to maintain essential health services.
“Omicron has an unprecedented number of spike mutations, some of which are concerning for their potential impact on the trajectory of the pandemic,” the WHO said. “The overall global risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron is assessed as very high.”
