KARACHI: Two more passengers tested positive for Covid on Saturday, raising the total number of detected passengers to four within three days.

Source said two male passengers, aged 27 and 20 years, arrived from Jeddah and Sharjah, respectively.

“Their Rapid Antigen Test was positive. This means that both are infected with Covid,” a health department official said, adding that their samples for detailed analysis had been sent to a Dow University of Health Sciences’ laboratory.

“The lab results would show the Covid variant they suffer from. The results would be available in at least five days.”

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One of the passengers is a resident of Kambar Shahdadkot in Sindh, while the other hails from Muzaffargarh district of Punjab.

They have left for their homes as they have been advised to quarantine themselves.

Earlier, two international travellers tested po­­sitive for Covid at Kara­chi’s Jinnah Interna­tional Airport.

Both were, however, allowed to leave for their hometowns in Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab and Sanghar in Sindh after being advised to quarantine themselves at their residences.

Screening for Covid at airports has resumed in the wake of an emerging threat of a new Covid variant, JN.I, as experts say the new variant is ‘highly contagious’.

According to experts, the JN.1 variant, also called a sub-variant of the Omicron lineage, is more transmissible than other circulating variants, and the proportion of cases caused by this particular virus has been rising.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2024