New UK COVID variant spreading at rapid pace in Sindh, warns health minister

(Karachi) Sindh Health Minister Dr. Azra Pechuho has said that the new UK COVID-19 variant responsible for the surge in infections across other provinces is now spreading at a rapid pace in Sindh, local media reported.

Issuing a warning on Thursday, Pechuo said that the provincial health ministry carried out a genomic analysis of 22 virus samples from patients out of which 18 are found to be of the UK variant. "There are also two cases detected of the variant B1135," she added.

“The variant that we detected in March is now seen spreading in Sindh.” She said that there’s a risk that the new variant might result in a rapid increase in cases in Karachi and Hyderabad.

She mentioned the new virus variant spreads much faster than other variants.

Earlier, the Sindh health minister stated that 50 percent of the samples in a Covid-19 genomic study conducted in Karachi were confirmed to be of the UK coronavirus variant.

Pechuho said that the UK variant had already spread in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab as a result of which a lot of deaths are occurring and a lot of patients are being affected.

She stressed the need to take precautions and follow SOPs to curb the spread of the deadly virus.