Delta variant accounts for 100% of cases in Karachi: research institute

• Karachi's virus infection rate reaches 16.46%: federal health officials.
• "Wild-type" COVID variant cannot be detected in Karachi: Dr Chaudhry.
• Experts warn city's infection rate being "artificially dropped".

KARACHI: Karachi University's National Institute of Virology said Wednesday the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus — that had first emerged in India — now accounts for 100% of cases in the metropolis.

The Director of KU’s International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences Dr Iqbal Chaudhry said his institute conducted genome typing of 80 samples a day earlier and all the cases turned out to be carrying the Delta variant.

Dr Chaudhry said the "wild-type" of coronavirus variant could not be detected in the city anymore as Delta has become the prevalent one.

The positivity ratio at the ICCBS lab was 19-20%, Dr Chaudhry said, while the federal health officials said Karachi's infection rate has risen to 16.46%.

The federal health officials said 8,464 tests were conducted in the port city in the last 24 hours out of which 1,393 were detected to be positive, thus taking the infection rate to 16.46%.

"The coronavirus positivity ratio is being artificially dropped from 25% to 16% by doing unnecessary tests," medical experts said.

Experts said Health Secretary Sindh Kazim Jatoi has given targets to district health officers to "test healthy people" as through it, "one can easily bring down the infection rate".

Pakistan's active COVID cases cross 50,000 mark

Active coronavirus cases in Pakistan crossed the 50,000-mark on Wednesday, reaching 51,529, with the total infections nearing a grim 1 million total, official data showed, as the government urged people to follow SOPs amid fears of a fourth wave.

The active cases recorded in the country are the highest since June 3, when they were at 51,478.

The overall cases in the country have reached 996,451, with 2,579 new infections registered in the last 24 hours, the National Command and Operations Centre said.

The NCOC said 40 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, taking Pakistan's coronavirus death toll to 22,888. Total recoveries have reached 922,034 after 939 more people recovered from the virus.

41,186 tests were conducted and 2,579 new cases emerged, taking the positivity ratio of the country to 6.26%, the NCOC said.