ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Tuesday said that none of the Beta variant cases were detected in the month of August 2021 and the overall number of cases and positivity ratio are much lower in Pakistan compared to many other countries.
The ministry said this while responding to the concerns raised and issuing a note about travel restrictions between the UK and Pakistan by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
It added Pakistan is undoubtedly going through its fourth wave, as mentioned in the note which refers to the official data from Pakistan and it is predominantly made up of the Delta (Indian) variant. The Beta cases mentioned were sequenced in samples taken between April 9, 2021, and July 7, 2021, and no such case was detected.
It added, the overall number of cases and positivity ratio are much lower in Pakistan compared to countries such as Iran and Iraq, which continue to be on the Amber list. As of August 30, the total number of active cases is 94,573 in Pakistan, 132,699 in Iraq and 678,188 in Iran while as of August 26, the seven-day rolling average of the positivity ratio is 6.9% in Pakistan, 18.1% in Iraq and 32.7% in Iran, it added.
The ministry while commenting on testing rates amongst inbound travellers to the UK, said that this highlights the need to focus on solving the core issue under discussion like travellers in both directions.
The solution proposed in a recent note by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services, Dr. Faisal Sultan suggested three measures included mandatory vaccination of a WHO-approved vaccine (with a verifiable certificate that links up to a government site), a PCR test 72 hours prior to travel and a pre-board rapid antigen test.
These three measures, if properly implemented, will reduce the likelihood of viral carriage in travellers to fractional numbers, it added.
It said that this focused approach in ensuring a virus-free traveller will be far more efficient at ensuring the true absence of infection in each traveller rather than aiming to measure the disease status in a country of over 220 million individuals and using that as a loose proxy for the likelihood of infection transmission.
The ministry said that the overall testing strategy in Pakistan has been rational as it is focused on individuals with clinical symptoms, contact tracing, and testing in specific epidemiologic risk-prone situations like schools.
It said that an overwhelming majority of these are PCR tests rather than antigen tests that some other countries have used as the mainstay of testing.
The overall impact of this strategy is evident in the successful handling of the pandemic so far – a fact that has been recognized at many levels and has yielded better outcomes than countries with much higher testing rates, it added.