Glad tidings: Experts foresee no new Covid-19 variant

LAHORE: A sigh of relief for the dwellers of the world as scientists and experts are not expecting an emergence of any new and lethal variant of Covid-19 in the near future.

It was revealed by Special Assistant to Prime Minister Dr. Faisal Sultan Saturday while talking exclusively to The News at the sidelines of RheumaCon 2022 in Lahore.

SAPM said the fifth wave of Covid-19 has almost passed and another new major wave of the disease is very unlikely to emerge anywhere in the world including Pakistan, except a rare chance of SARS-CoV-2.

“From the point of view of public health, there is no evidence of emergence of any major variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the future”, asserted Dr. Sultan.

He added: “Covid-19 has not been completely eliminated from the world but the intensity has considerably declined, said Dr Faisal Sultan, adding that all those people who were not vaccinated they were vulnerable to contract the infection due to weak immune system.”

As far as herd immunity is concerned, it has not been achieved yet as there are many people who are still vulnerable therefore infection penetration will continue to be observed in the community, said SAPM.

Responding to queries regarding the Qaumi Sehat Card scheme, Dr Faisal Sultan claimed that it would be very difficult for the coming governments to discontinue the health insurance scheme as people were pleased to avail the quality medical treatment and services both at public and private healthcare facilities in the country without spending a single penny from their pockets.

“People want better service delivery no matter they receive it from public or private health sector. Since they are getting the satisfactory health facilities via Sehat card scheme, they will not let it rolled back”, he maintained.

He further said that other than Sehat Cards, governments would need to spend on public health facilities in far flung areas of the country where private sector was not present. Responding to a query regarding Sindh’s reluctance in joining the health insurance scheme, he said that Sindh should join the scheme by involving insurance company for the sake of the citizens, He hoped that Sindh would eventually join the scheme sooner or later by observing its success.