Pakistan registers new coronavirus strain
Islamabad: Pakistan has confirmed a case of the new coronavirus mutant strain that was first detected in the UK, media reports said.
According to the Sindh health department, 12 samples of UK returnees were taken for genotyping out of which six were positive and three showed the new variant of the Covid virus in the first phase, reports Dawn News.
"The genotyping showed 95 per cent match of the new variant from the UK. These samples will go through another phase of genotyping," Meeran Yousuf, spokesperson for the Sindh health department, told the newspaper.
Karachi (29.12.2020): Samples of 3 UK returnees show a 95% match to the new Corona Virus variant from UK in the first phase of Genotyping. #SindhHealth pic.twitter.com/4UUTSMTOQa
— Health and Population Welfare Department, Sindh (@SindhHealthDpt) December 29, 2020
"Meanwhile, the contact tracing of these patients is in process and their contacts are also being isolated," she said.
Pakistan has so far registered 9992 deaths due to the highly infectious virus.
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