KARACHI: Sindh health department officials collected 51 blood samples in the contact-tracing process on Thursday after reporting the country’s first suspected case of Covid-19 variant Omicron in a female patient residing in Karachi, sources told Dawn.

These samples, they said, would be first tested for Covid-19 and later for genome sequencing, if needed. The samples were also collected from two male members of the suspected patient’s family, who tested positive for Covid-19 and were under treatment at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), they added.

The sources said the sampling process was carried out in the presence of a team representing the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), World Health Organisation (WHO) and health department, and the samples were sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad for genome sequencing.

The sources said the female patient ‘highly suspected of having Omicron variant’ had been discharged from AKUH on Dec 8 and isolated at home along with a female family member in her 80s. Her Covid-19 test results are awaited.

Health department collects 51 samples in contact-tracing process; large number of people in neighbourhood of suspected patient found unvaccinated

The sources said no person of the four-member family had a travel history and three of them, including the suspected patient, were not vaccinated against Covid-19.

“Today, the health department officials visited the neighbourhood of Jamshed Town where the family lives and found that a large number of people residing in the same locality are not vaccinated, prompting the department to immediately start a drive for vaccination,” said Atif Vighio, an official of the health department, adding that people’s movement in the area had been restricted and a vaccination camp would be set up there.

Confusion over case

Initially, the health department officials confirmed detection of the first case of Omicron variant in Karachi. In this respect, a letter written by the health officer of East district to the provincial director general of health was widely shared on social media, according to which the first case of Omicron was reported at 7pm on December 8.

The letter, a copy of which is available with Dawn, stated that the woman, who is 65 years of age, was unvaccinated and did not have a travel history. The rapid response team was “taken on board immediately” for tracing, testing, quarantining, vaccination and other preventive measures to control the infection’s spread as per the guidelines of the NCOC, the letter stated. The district’s deputy commissioner was also requested to take necessary action (micro smart lockdown), according to the letter.

Hours later, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho in a video statement clarified that a genomic study was being carried to confirm the case of Omicron in a 57-year-old woman. “The genomic study of the coronavirus patient’s sample hasn’t yet been completed but the way the virus is behaving, it seems like it is Omicron,” she said, adding that there was no cause for concern and that the study would take one or two weeks.

Highlighting the threat posed by the new Covid-19 variant, the minister said Omicron was very transmissible but deaths or serious [illness] had not been seen in recent reports coming from South Africa (where the variant was first detected).

“The virus also spreads because people are not vaccinated. This woman was not vaccinated either. I am appealing to you to get fully vaccinated as soon as possible or get the booster dose, if you have already received both doses. It can protect you,” she stressed.

The NIH also stated in a Twitter post that the sample of the coronavirus patient was “not yet confirmed to be Omicron via whole-genome sequencing” which would be performed after the institute received the sample.

It might be recalled that the WHO designated B.1.1.529 a variant of concern and named it Omicron. It has several mutations that may have an impact on how it spreads and the severity of illness.

However, it is not yet clear whether Omicron is more transmissible (e.g. more easily spread from person to person) compared to other variants, including Delta. The number of people testing positive has risen in areas of South Africa affected by this variant, but epidemiologic studies are under way to understand if it is because of Omicron or other factors.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2021