Pakistan reports 288 Covid cases in one day

Coronavirus has claimed seven more lives in Pakistan during the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 28,720. 

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 288 more people were infected with the virus.

A total of 46,006 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, out of which 372 turned out to be positive, showing an infection rate of 0.62 per cent.

At present, 740 critical patients have been admitted to hospitals across the country, the NCOC said.

On December 9, samples of three patients from Karachi who are suspected of having contracted the new variant of COVID-19, Omicron, had been sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH) for whole-genome sequencing.

The three samples of suspected Omicron-hit patients had been sent from Karachi to Islamabad via Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight.

Sindh’s Health Minister had said that the genomic study of a suspected case of Omicron, the new variant of coronavirus, will require up to two weeks.

“The symptoms of the female patient were pointing out a likely case of the new variant,” the minister had said. “It rapidly spreads with a lesser ratio of deaths,” she added. “Female patient of suspected Omicron virus infection was unvaccinated,” the minister said.

However, the National Institute of Health (NIH) had said that no case of Omicron was confirmed in Pakistan as yet.