Corona variant found in two persons

ISLAMABAD: The National Institute of Health (NIH) has confirmed presence of B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant in two individuals who had visited the UK, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Monday.

This is in follow up to preliminary reports of the existence of this variant, which have now been confirmed via whole-genome sequencing.

Since the emergence of the new coronavirus variant in the UK, which was reported in December 2020, the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination has made it mandatory for all inbound passengers from the UK to test for SARS-CoV-2 on arrival.

It is also of note that the variant virus reported in the UK has also been detected in 31 other countries so far.

The preliminary epidemiologic and clinical findings suggest that the B.1.1.7 variant virus may have a higher transmissibility - but without any evidence of increased severity of illness.

Meanwhile, the NCOC has reported 39 deaths due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours which took the tally to 10,350 across the country. Another 1,895 people were tested positive.