ISLAMABAD: After a month-long hiatus in multiple deaths from coronavirus in a single day, two patients died the same day, an official of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said on Wednesday.

A six-year-old child suffering from blood cancer died due to Covid-19 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while in Sindh the virus claimed the life of a 75-year-old person, an official of the Ministry of National Health Services said, requesting anonymity.

The official said previously just a few deaths were being reported every week due to which the weekly mortality rate remained nearly zero.

“However, two deaths in a single day is a caution for us, as the number of cases and deaths can increase in the coming days. Covid-19 virus belongs to a family of influenza virus and it becomes more active during winter season,” he added.

At least 22 of 5,126 samples found positive

The NCOC data showed 5,126 tests were conducted across the country in 24 hours and 22 of the samples were found positive. Overall, the positivity rate remained 0.43 per cent.

While refuting reports about detection of a new subvariant of Covid-19, the NIH on Wednesday tweeted, “NCOC-NIH refutes the news of any new Covid-19 subvariant. Currently, XBB Omicron subvariant is already the dominant variant for the last 3 months. NCOC is closely monitoring the situation.”

Just a day ago, the NIH had said since its appearance, 29 cases of the XBB variant were reported from Pakistan, but “this is not the BF.7 variant which is spreading in China.”

It stated categorically that no case of BF.7 variant had been detected in Pakistan.

Health ministry official said that Covid-19 cases were detected on a daily basis but it was not possible to confirm if they were of XBB or any other variants.

“It requires genome sequencing which is a lengthy process and it takes up to three days to identify that sample belongs to which subvariant,” he added.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2023