The British government has announced a new package of genomic sequencing support to help Pakistan’s fight against new variants of Covid-19, according to a press release by the British High Commission.

It said that through the New Variant Assessment Platform programme Pakistan would be able to draw on UK expertise and support to detect new, and potentially more dangerous, variants of Covid-19.

"The UK is a world leader in genomic sequencing for Covid variants and the second largest contributor to the international database for the variants. Through an agreement reached between UK’s Public Health England and Pakistan’s National Institute for Health, the UK will share its expertise and provide reagents to increase genomic sequencing capacity in Pakistan," the press release said.

British High Commissioner to Pakistan Dr Christian Turner was quoted as saying that the package would help Pakistan in its fight against the coronavirus and in identifying new variants.