The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said Saturday that the “new variant” of Covid-19 currently being reported in China can pose a threat to Pakistan as well.

A statement issued by the NCOC said: “The threat of the variant entering Pakistan is present because of lockdowns lifting in China and free traveling.”

The press release noted that the threat posed by the variant was low due to the vaccination campaign.

It said that 90 percent of the eligible population in Pakistan was completely inoculated.

China is expecting a peak in COVID-19 infections within a week, a health official said, with authorities predicting extra strain on the country's health system even as they downplay the disease's severity and continue to report no new deaths.

In the face of a surging outbreak and widespread protests against its "zero-COVID" regime of lockdowns and testing, China began dismantling it this month, becoming the last major country to move toward living with the virus.

Its containment measures had slowed the $17 trillion economy to its lowest growth rate in nearly half a century, jamming global supply chains and trade.

China reported fewer than 4,000 new symptomatic local COVID cases nationwide on December 22, and no new COVID deaths for a third consecutive day.

Authorities in China have narrowed the criteria for COVID deaths, prompting criticism from many disease experts.