The Karachi University’s National Institute of Virology has said the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus — that had first emerged in India — now accounts for 100% of cases in the metropolis.
The Director of KU’s International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences Dr Iqbal Chaudhry said his institute conducted genome typing of 80 samples a day earlier and all the cases turned out to be carrying the Delta variant.
Dr Chaudhry said the “wild-type” of coronavirus variant could not be detected in the city anymore as Delta has become the prevalent one.The positivity ratio at the ICCBS lab was 19-20%, Dr Chaudhry said, while the federal health officials said Karachi’s infection rate has risen to 16.46%.
The federal health officials said 8,464 tests were conducted in the port city in the last 24 hours out of which 1,393 were detected to be positive, thus taking the infection rate to 16.46%.
“The coronavirus positivity ratio is being artificially dropped from 25% to 16% by doing unnecessary tests,” medical experts said.
Experts said Health Secretary Sindh Kazim Jatoi has given targets to district health officers to “test healthy people” as through it, “one can easily bring down the infection rate”.
Active coronavirus cases in Pakistan crossed the 50,000-mark on Wednesday, reaching 51,529, with the total infections nearing a grim 1 million total, official data showed, as the government urged people to follow SOPs amid fears of a fourth wave.
