Daily Times

The Centre for Diseases Control (CDC), National Institute of Health (NIH) has advised the Central Health Establishment to increase the scope of existing ongoing Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) for COVID-19 at the country’s international airports.

According to the NIH spokesperson, the recommendation was made after reviewing the recent global situation of COVID-19, and the directive of the Federal Minister for Health, Qadir Patel. He said that the CDC also asked to conduct rapid antigen tests for Coronavirus in a systematic way, for passengers from different countries. He added that the main aim to take this step was to remain vigilant and conduct surveillance and monitoring at points of entry to rapidly detect any infected case. The spokesperson said that the Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) for COVID-19 are being conducted on a random basis as a measure to monitor the disease activity.

It is pertinent to mention here that the National Institute of Health detected the first case of Omicron sub-variant BA.2.12.1 in Pakistan on May 9, 2022. The NIH spokesperson said that this new sub-variant is causing an increasing number of cases in different countries. He said that the best preventive measure besides mask-wearing in crowded places is COVID-19 vaccination. He added, “We strongly recommend getting vaccinated and all those due for booster must get the shots immediately.” According to health experts, Omicron is a variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that was first discovered in Botswana on November 11, 2021, and designated a variant of concern by the WHO on November 26.

They said that Omicron has multiple different lineages including the original Omicron BA.1 (B.1.1.529) and also BA.2 and BA.3. BA.2 is more infectious than BA.1 and has now taken over BA.1 to become the new dominant form of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide, they added. BA.2 shares many of these same mutations as the original Omicron variant, but also has 28 unique genetic changes of its own. Four of these genetic changes are in the spike protein, which explains why some of its characteristics are different to the original Omicron variant (BA.1), including the fact it appears to be approximately 30 to 50% more infectious than BA.1.