KARACHI, Pakistan — A coronavirus variant first discovered
in the United Kingdom now accounts for up to 70 percent of COVID-19 infections
across Pakistan, a research center studying the disease in the country said on
Saturday.
اضافة اعلان
The country has imposed strict nationwide restrictions in
the lead up to the Muslim festival of
Eid Al-Fitr next week in a bid to control
a spike in cases, including banning public transport over the holiday period.
“There is a 60 percent to 70 percent prevalence of the UK
variant in Pakistan (today),” Professor Dr Muhammad Iqbal Chaudhry, director at
the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (
ICCBS),
University of Karachi, told Reuters, adding that this figure was 2 percent in
January.
The ICCBS works on
COVID-19 samples and provides research
and data to the government.
The “UK variant”, known as B.1.1.7 and first identified in
Britain late last year, is believed to be more transmissible than other
previously dominant coronavirus variants. Chaudhry added, however, that it was
yet to be established if the variant was more deadly.
He also said a variant found in neighboring India, which has
seen a massive surge of cases in recent weeks, had not been detected in
Pakistan yet, but that was because they did not have the kits needed to detect
the variant, named B.1.617.
The kits to detect the variant had been ordered and would
soon arrive in the country, he said.
Chaudhry said there was a high possibility that the variant
had already reached Pakistan since the diasporas of the two countries interact
closely in Gulf states.
Pakistan has seen a daily death toll of more than 100 in
recent weeks. Officials are worried the strained healthcare system could reach
a breaking point if more contagious coronavirus variants begin to spread, as
has happened in India.
Overall, Pakistan has registered 854,240 infections and
18,797 deaths from COVID-19. While official daily infection numbers remain low,
between 4,000 and 5,000, the country conducts only around 40,000 tests a day —
a fraction of its 220 million population.
The country has recently stepped up its vaccination drive,
inoculating around 3.3 million people. On Saturday it received its first batch
of 1.2 million vaccine doses under its COVAX quota.
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