No new Covid variant has been identified in Pakistan, the health ministry spokesperson said on Teusday after sections of the media claimed that a case had been reported in Karachi, Sindh.

The samples were sent to the Aga Khan University Hospital after the suspected case was confirmed through genome sequencing conducted at the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS).

The spokesperson rebuffed all reports about any such virus in the community as “fake”.

The BF.7, short for BA.5.2.1.7, is a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant BA.5, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The virus that originated from China around the end of 2019 has since mutated into the delta variant, then omicron and its sublineages, which continue to plague the world today.

BF.7 has an R0 or basic reproduction number of 10 to 18.6, NBC News reported. This indicates that an affec­ted person could transmit the virus to 10 to 18.6 other people on average. In comparison, Omicron had an R0 of 5.08.

The two are being tracked as variants of concern by authorities in China and the US.