What we know about the new Covid variant in Pakistan

Ummay e Farwa
Lahore: Fewer cases of Covid-19 are being reported in Pakistan than other countries.
According to the Punjab Health Department, 76,875 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in 2022, and 644 deaths were reported.
New cases of the coronavirus variants XBB, XBB1 and BF7 are being reported across the world. From October to December 2022, the cases of BF7 have increased in China, Germany and France. No case of the new variant has been reported in Pakistan so far.
The rate of positivity of the XBB variant in the United States was 18.3% till the last week of December 2022, and XBB cases are being reported in Pakistan too. So far, only five confirmed cases have been reported in Lahore.
According to the Punjab Health Department, the new variant is a sub-variant of Omicron with the same symptoms, including headache, high fever, runny or stuff nose, cough, sore throat and feeling tired.
Experts have, however, been pondering over the low positivity rates in Pakistan. They believe that Covid has been present in the country for over three years yet there has been no effective research on it.
Dr Muhammad Wasif Malik, the Senior Scientific Officer at the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, told the correspondent that coronavirus is still present in Pakistan.

The virus still exists, and most people in Pakistan have been vaccinated, some have even received both doses of the vaccine, while children between the ages of 12 to 18 years have been vaccinated too. The immunity of the people has been strengthened by the vaccination.

The new variant has not been able to seriously affect people in the country so far. He even believed that people opting to open their windows and doors have also helped prevent the spread of the virus to a considerably degree.
Another expert WHO Pakistan Head of Office Dr Jamshaid Ahmed believes that Pakistan’s positivity rate is low because of low rates of testing. When people aren’t getting tested, then how will the cases be reported, he remarked.
Dr Javed Hayat, consultant pulmonologist, shared that our population has possibly developed a kind of immunity owing to childhood viral illnesses because of which we haven’t seen an increase in transmission and mortality as we saw in the previous waves.  In many districts, the total numbers of cases throughout the pandemic were very low.
Professor Sidrah Saleem, the head of department at the University of Health Sciences, shared that cooking food, cleaning our houses, and proper ventilation of houses save many people from the virus. Our people also consume steroids a lot so maybe this is one of the reasons why the virus didn’t have bad effects on the people.
According to Prof Tahir Yaqoob of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, most of the population has already been exposed and vaccinated rates have increased. In the new variant, only a small portion of the proteins has been mutated because of which our immune system is faring that the people in China.
Medical experts said that coronavirus has not been controlled yet and advised people to continue wearing masks and following the social distancing SOPs.