ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar on Saturday said that the need for coronavirus vaccination had become more urgent with the arrival of the Omicron variant in the country.
Read more: NIH confirms Pakistan’s first Omicron case after analysing samples
“With [the] arrival of omicron variant the need for vaccination [is] even more urgent. So far 8 crore 75 lakh Pakistani’s [sic] have taken at least one dose and 6 crore people are fully vaccinated,” Umar tweeted today.
With arrival of omicron variant the need for vaccination even more urgent. So far 8 crore 75 lakh Pakistani's have taken at least one dose and 6 crore people are fully vaccinated.
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) December 18, 2021
On December 13, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Pakistan had confirmed the country’s first Omicron case.
“The NIH has been able to confirm (via whole genome sequencing) that a recently suspected sample from Karachi is indeed the ‘Omicron variant’ of SARS-CoV2,” NIH Pakistan had said in a tweet.
“This is the first confirmed case but continued surveillance of suspected samples is in place to identify the trends.”
Read more: Bracing for Omicron
Stressing on the importance of vaccination, the NIH had said, “The importance of getting vaccinated to protect from serious effects of existing and new variants is therefore highlighted. Please get yourself vaccinated according to guidelines issued by the NCOC.”
