Pakistan has confirmed that three returnees from the United Kingdom have tested positive for the new strain of the coronavirus.
The Sindh Health Department confirmed the new cases out of the 12 samples provided by the UK returnees. Of this number, six were positive for COVID-19 and three out of six were traced to the new COVID strain.
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“The Genotyping showed 95% match of the new variant from the UK. These samples will go through another phase of genotyping,” said Meeran Yousuf, spokesperson for the Sindh health department.
Pakistan’s health authorities are now undergoing contact tracing of the three patients and are isolating all known contacts of these three individuals.
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The new coronavirus strain, named B.1.1.7, was first detected in the UK and was confirmed by Science Magazine to spread faster compared to COVID-19.
Studies from the Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK state that the new coronavirus strain B.1.1.7 is more contagious by 56 per cent on average, thereby increasing the likelihood of more hospitalisations and deaths.
