With 246 new Covid cases, Karachi’s positivity rate hits 19.65pc

Karachi on Saturday reported 246 more cases of Covid-19 against 1,252 tests conducted over the past 24 hours, increasing the rate of Covid-positive patients to 19.65 per cent, but despite that the rate of hospitalisation is still very low in the city, said officials.

The National Command & Operation Centre said Covid-19 cases and the positivity rate are on the rise in Karachi and Hyderabad, where the positivity rate has reached 19.65 per cent and 11.54 per cent respectively.

Dr Abdul Waheed Rajput, medical superintendent of the Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital & Research Centre, told The News that they have only 10 patients admitted at the health facility, but daily five to seven new ones visit the centre with mild symptoms.

“Although cases are on the rise, the symptoms are mild, and most of the patients don’t require hospitalisation. Due to increased awareness, people are getting tested for Covid-19, but due to mild symptoms, they prefer to stay home in self-isolation.”

Officials at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, the Dr Ruth KM Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi and some private health facilities said admission of patients with Covid-19 is very low, and even those who visit them have mild to moderate symptoms, so they do not require mechanical ventilation support.

Omicron sub-variants

Prof Dr Saeed Khan, senior molecular pathologist at the Dow University of Health Sciences, said that the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus are highly transmissible. Dr Khan explained that both these sub-variants have some escape mutations that help them infect even those people who have been vaccinated or have antibodies due to a previous infection.

“Compared to the Omicron variant or its previous sub-variants, the infectivity of these new sub-variants is very high due to the escape mutations. They’re causing infections in those with neutralising antibodies against previous variants,” he said, adding that it was unclear if they are causing severe disease.