Omicron rising

Pakistan has been reporting 600-700 new Covid cases daily in the first week of January. The country’s positivity rate has also risen to 1.4 percent, sounding alarm bells for health authorities and the public alike. Sindh is leading with 339 cases reported on Jan 3 and Punjab with 185 cases on the same day. Pakistan has seen a gradual uptick in the coronavirus caseload with its Omicron variant. The number of new cases recorded is the highest in over two months; during November and December, the number had declined considerably. The rising number of Omicron cases should serve as a warning to the country’s top Covid-19 body which is responsible for containing the spread of the virus. In Sindh, the government has announced that the prevalence of the Omicron variant has reached up to 50 percent in the province. It means when the samples of Covid-19 positive cases were analyzed more than half were found to be infected with the Omicron variant.

If the federal and provincial governments do not take stringent and timely actions, the virus spread in the country may turn out to be a nasty problem to tackle. The worsening situation of the coronavirus pandemic driven by the new variant calls for a comprehensive plan to deal with it. That must include checks on travel entry points into the country, especially from the worst affected areas such as from Europe and the Americas. Encouragingly, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has made PCR testing mandatory for everyone flying in from overseas. The number of daily new cases has been steadily rising for the past one month and if this upward trend continues the situation may get out of hand pretty soon. The critical nature of this challenge we can gauge from the hard conditions even some developed countries are going through. Across Pakistan there is an urgent need to start an extensive vaccination drive and increase tests of people of all ages, especially the elderly.

While the government needs to do all it can, the people of the country must also adopt preventive measures. That involves strict measures at businesses, community gatherings, educational institutions, industries, and in public transport. Due to the spread of the Omicron variant the government must ensure everyone is following the SoPs by wearing masks and avoiding going to crowded places. In addition to Sindh, Covid-19’s new variant is spreading gradually in Punjab too, particularly in Lahore where the number of positive cases rose to 125 on Jan 3. Punjab is the largest province in terms of population and an increasing infection ratio may be a harbinger of a more severe outbreak of the disease. Enforcement of preventive guidelines has been a problem for the past two years, but lately people have started taking the virus lightly. The international travel factor must not be ruled out as some of the posh localities in Lahore have reported the highest number of the Omicron variant cases. Pakistan has been spared the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic – in relative terms of course – and we hope this continues, with the NCOC going forward with its good work and ensuring vaccination is spread as extensively as is possible.