It's been long suspected that the reason behind the third surge of novel coronavirus infection in Pakistan is the United Kingdom variant of the lethal virus. The health authorities of the country have consistently claimed that for the past few weeks. Also, a couple of studies have already shown it.

Now a research paper published by the Chughtai Laboratories has further solidified the government's claim that the UK variant is the main culprit behind the third wave of COVID-19 in Pakistan. The results of the study conducted by the virology and genetics departments of the well-reputed laboratory were announced today via Twitter. They released their statement which is as follows:

Our Virology and Genetics Departments conducted a joint study at the end of March to assess the presence of variants of SARS-COV-2 Virus in Pakistan. 60 out of 62 samples turned out to be UK variant. Research paper has been submitted for publication.

So far, several variants of the coronavirus have been identified globally. These are named based on the place they are identified from. Some of the well-known variants are as follows: The original Chinese variant, Brazilian variant, South African variant, United Kingdom variant, and the most recently identified Indian variant.

As there are so many variants/types of novel coronavirus prevalent globally, people wonder how effective the vaccines are against these different variants and whether a vaccine made for one variant can be effective for the other variants too?

Health experts across the globe believe that any vaccine developed for SARS-COV-2 is effective against most variants and thus getting the maximum percentage of the global population immunized in the next few months should be our top priority.

Pakistan's de facto health minister Dr. Faisal Sultan also shed light on the matter today, he said:

As speculation about variants continues, it's important to remember that every virus mutates and the coronavirus is not unique for doing so. We're learning more about variants but in the meantime, everyone who is eligible should get vaccinated right away without hesitation.