By BR Web Desk

Pakistan has vaccinated 25% of its total population and 37% of its eligible population against the novel coronavirus as it rushes to inoculate the citizens amid fear of the new Omicron variant of the virus.

In a tweet on Tuesday, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said that during the last 24 hours, 916,314 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were administered across the country. So far, 134,818,017 doses have been administered, the NCOC said.

"25% of total and 37% of the eligible population of Pakistan stands vaccinated!!" the NCOC tweeted.

Pakistan reports 250 new cases, 3 deaths

As per the NCOC, 36,944 tests were carried out during the last 24 hours, out of which 250 came out positive. The positivity ratio was recorded at 0.67%. Pakistan has so far confirmed 1,289,543 Covid-19 cases.

Meanwhile, the active number of cases stands at 9,120, while there are 734 critical cases. The country also reported three deaths, taking the tally to 28,839.

Moreover, 175 recoveries were also recorded during the last 24 hours, taking the total to 1,251,584.

Pakistan confirms first Omicron case

Pakistan confirmed its first case of the Omicron case on Monday, a week after Sindh had announced a suspected case detected in a female admitted in a hospital in Karachi.

"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 said in a tweet.

"This is the first confirmed case but continued surveillance of suspected samples is in place to identify the trends."

Last week, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho had said that Pakistan has reported its first 'suspected' case of Omicron in a female patient in Karachi. She said that a genomic study was being carried out for confirmation. She further said that the patient's sample had not been conducted but the way the virus is behaving, it seems like it is Omicron.

Later, the NIH had clarified that "the sample is not yet confirmed to be Omicron via whole-genome sequencing, which is to be performed after obtaining the sample".

This story was first published in Business Recorder on Dec 14, 2021.