Pakistan finds Chinese dominant strains in its sample: NIH

Picture source - AFP

The presence of Omicron’s subvariant XBB and one of the three dominant COVID-19 strains in China has been confirmed by genome sequencing in Pakistan on Tuesday, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Aga Khan University.

At NIH Islamabad, genomic surveillance is in progress. Only a small number of samples are accessible for sequencing due to the low positivity. Omicron XBB instances increased in our most recent batch, according to an NIH Islamabad official.

A big COVID-19 wave is not now posing a threat to Pakistan, according to NIH authorities. We do, however, constantly watch the situation and stand ready for anything, they added.

Aga Khan University researchers, on the other hand, verified to local media that they had found and reported the Omicron variant’s XBB sub-variant to local authorities, but they added that they had not yet seen the other two sub-variants, including BF.7.

Dr. Faisal Sultan, a specialist in infectious diseases, thinks that because there were no travel restrictions in place to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus, in addition to the XBB variation, the extremely contagious BF.7 would also be present and spreading in the nation.

He claimed that the COVID-19 re-infection-evading capabilities of the BF.7 variant made it so contagious that just one individual with the virus might infect 18 to 20 more persons.