South African, Brazilian strands found
Both strains more contagious, lethal than original Wuhan variant: Pechuho
PHOTO: RADIO PAKISTAN/File
KARACHI:
Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazl Pechuho has confirmed the detection of the South African and Brazilian variants of the coronavirus in Karachi. Dr Pechuho said on Friday that the variants, which were more lethal than the original Wuhan variant, were detected in samples collected by Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH).
In a video message, the health minister said AKUH had collected 13 samples for a genomic study and of those, 10 were found infected with the United Kingdom variant of the coronavirus - the presence of which was confirmed in Karachi in an earlier genomic study - two were found infected with the South African variant and the one remaining was infected with the Brazilian variant.
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Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho said on Wednesday that 50 per cent of the samples in a Covid-19 genomic study conducted in Karachi were confirmed to be of the UK coronavirus variant. Dawn/File
Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho said on Wednesday that 50 per cent of the samples in a Covid-19 genomic study conducted in Karachi were confirmed to be of the UK coronavirus variant.
In a video message released on Twitter, Pechuho said that the UK variant spreads very rapidly and it 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.