Like other countries of the world, new variant of Corona will also come to Pakistan, Asad Umar

Asad Umar, Federal Minister for Planning and Head of National Command and Operations Center (NCOC), has said that a new variant of Corona virus (Omecron) is spreading around the world and it will come to Pakistan but in next 2 to 3 weeks. We need to reduce the risk by vaccinating as much as possible.

Speaking at a news conference with Health Advisor Dr Faisal Sultan after a meeting at the NCOC, he said that a new strain of Corona virus has emerged in South Africa which is extremely dangerous and has spread to other countries.

He said that the spread of the virus in the country has been very low for several weeks now due to vaccination and so far about 50 million people in the country have been fully vaccinated while 30 million people have received a single dose of the vaccine.

"Whatever decisions we have made in the last year and a half, we have taken into account the future, not the past," he added.

"We have decided that as the number of positive cases decreases, so has the testing, but now it has been decided to start testing in high risk areas as well so that more tests can be done," he said. The tracing system is also being stepped up again.

He said that the arrival of passengers from the affected countries has been banned but further steps are being taken in this regard to control the new strain of the virus.

He acknowledged that the virus could be prevented for some time by taking all necessary measures, but said that it was "impossible" to stop the spread of the virus in the world.

He said that the solution is vaccination. According to initial reports, the vaccine will still be effective for defense.

He urged those who have been given one dose of the vaccine to give up all their work and get another dose of the vaccine immediately.

Asad Omar said that consultation was going on with our provinces and in the next 2-3 days a major vaccination campaign would be launched in all the provinces.

He said that as a new variant of Corona virus is spreading all over the world, it will also come to Pakistan but in next 2 to 3 weeks we have to reduce its risk by vaccinating as much as possible.

He said a booster shot of a vaccine was being worked out for the part of the population that was most at risk from Corona.

Asad Omar said the rate of spread of the virus could be gauged from the fact that 12 days ago, the positive rate of cases in South Africa was 0.9 per cent and now it is 9.77 per cent.

"We will not have much time when the virus enters the country, so go today and get vaccinated instead of tomorrow," he said.

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Dr. Faisal Sultan said that reports of re-spread of the virus have been received from different countries in the last few days and those who died and those who were rushed to the hospital in critical condition are those who have not yet been vaccinated. 

The health adviser said that this variant is considered dangerous because its spread is much faster than previous variants and there are some mutations that could potentially make this variant more dangerous. 

"We are re-examining the arrival of passengers and strengthening it according to the existing scientific evidence, but the world is so interconnected that it is almost impossible to prevent the virus from entering the country," he said.

"In this situation, we can take steps to speed up vaccination so that those who have not yet been vaccinated can be vaccinated," he said.

Faisal Sultan said that apart from vaccination, the earlier instructions like use of mask, social distance, hand washing etc. are still in force.

"We have vaccinated millions, but millions are still to be vaccinated, so don't be fooled," he said.