PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has recorded the province’s first two cases of a new coronavirus strain, JN1, and asked hospitals to test suspected cases to reduce the risk of outbreaks.

Officials told Dawn that the Public Health Reference Laboratory of the Khyber Medical University, Peshawar, detected the strain in two residents of the provincial capital, who were immediately quarantined for the safety of others.

They added that the lab was checking nine more suspected cases for JN1.

The officials said the new Covid-19 strain had already been reported in Karachi and Islamabad.

Health dept orders hospitals to test suspected cases

They said after the detection of those JN1 cases, the health department had asked district health officers across the province to remain alert to stop the new coronavirus strain from spreading.

“We have asked DHOs to send at least samples from five confirmed Covid-19 cases to the PHRL to check them for the new strain,” a health official told Dawn.

He said the government, with the technical assistance of Khyber Medical University, had established 12 Covid-19 labs in hospitals at the divisional level after the first cases of the deadly virus were reported in early 2020.

The official added that those labs, which were still functional and had adequate staff members and rapid test kits, would ensure the testing of suspected cases and send the samples of positive cases to the PHRL for JN1 detection.

The health department has already sent letters to the district hospitals in the province to send those samples to the reference lab for other diseases, including typhoid, measles, MPox, influenza, cholera, acute watery diarrhea, dengue hemorrhagic fever, and other notifiable diseases, according to other officials.

They, however, said those hospitals didn’t dispatch those samples, so the government didn’t know about the incidences of those diseases.

The officials said the PHRL was established at the KMU with the government’s funding under a memorandum of understanding it signed with the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, to detect outbreaks on time and ensure speedy response.

They said there were 42 notifiable diseases for which each province had established its own PHRL under the guidance of the World Health Organisation to reduce the burden of diseases and prevent their spread to the population.

The officials said the government had to strictly direct the health department to collect samples from positive cases of all notifiable diseases to strengthen its disease surveillance system and take measures to prevent outbreaks.

They said during last year’s floods in the province, the department actively collected samples from the affected areas for testing that prevented the outbreak of acute watery diarrhea.

When contacted, PHRL director Dr. Yasar Yousafzai confirmed the detection of JN1 cases in the province and said the lab tested positive Covid-19 cases for the new strain of the virus.

“We have requested the health department send in samples for JN1 testing. The district hospitals can share those samples with us for free examination,” he said.

The director said the new coronavirus strain wasn’t dangerous as it didn’t cause death.

He, however, said JN1 was spreading fast, so it was necessary to ensure continued testing for suspected cases.

“Though this Covid-19 strain isn’t dangerous, it can cause health issues, prompting people to take medicines, including antibiotics, so it has an adverse impact on public health as well as the economy,” he said.

Dr Yousafzai said the people who tested positive for JN1 didn’t need hospitalisation or oxygen dependency, but testing was essential for symptomatic patients.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2024