 "New Covid variant a threat to Pakistan, country fully prepared: NCOC")
The new coronavirus variant spreading in China is a threat to Pakistan, the country's National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said on Saturday, according to a report by Geo News.
The same report said that "As per the NCOC, there is a risk that the new variant may enter Pakistan after China decided to lift the lockdown and travel restrictions."
China has seen a rapid surge in the number of COVID cases after the Chinese government abruptly shifted its policies.
According to NCOC officials, Pakistan is fully prepared to control the new variant.
The country has in the past, dealt with COVID variants in a timely manner, they said.
"There is a low risk due to the inoculation of the COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccination of 90 per cent of the eligible population in Pakistan has been completed," the officials said as quoted by Geo News.
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About 95 per cent of Pakistan's population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, the officials added.
According to data from Pakistan's National Institute of Health (NIH), in the last 24 hours, about 4,403 people have gotten themselves tested for coronavirus.
"As many as 13 people have tested positive for the virus, making the positivity rate at 0.30 per cent," according to NIH, reported Geo News.
Recently, the media reported that almost 250 million people in China may have been affected by COVID in just 20 days after the zero-covid policy was diluted in the first week of the month, according to radio Free Asia citing leaked government documents circulating on social media.
In the 20-minute meeting of China's National Health Commission, as per the leaked document look like, 248 million people were infected with Covid-19 from December 1 to 20, or 17.65 per cent of China's population.
As per Radio Free Asia, the data on COVID cases released by government officials on December 20 is different from the reality as nearly 37 million were estimated.
A senior Chinese journalist on Thursday told Radio Free Asia that the document was genuine, and had been leaked by someone who attended the meeting.
Earlier on Saturday, China mainland reported 3,761 new cases of confirmed infections and no new deaths were reported.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)