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dpa
Islamabad
The highly transmittable Delta variant of Covid-19 has hit Pakistani cities, triggering fears and forcing authorities to put virus hotspots under a strict lockdown.
New infections in Pakistan have risen sharply in July after a decline last month, due to the spread of the variant that originated in neighbouring India.
“Thousands of frightened people queue up in the institute for Covid-19 testing every morning since the outbreak of the Delta variant. They all look distressed,” said Afzal Khan, a spokesman of the National Institute of Health.
Authorities in the capital Islamabad and the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi put at least two dozen neighbourhoods under lockdown to curtail the spread, health officials said.
“The Delta variant is spreading very, very fast ... much faster than all the variants that hit Pakistan in the past. We are on alert,” said Zaeem Zia, Islamabad’s district health chief.
Pakistan, facing a fourth wave of the deadly virus, has seen a 40 percent rise in daily infections this week, with total cases nearing 1 million and more than 22,500 deaths.
“We have largely been spared by Covid-19 so far, but no idea where Delta variant leads us,” Pakistan’s health chief doctor Faisal Sultan said.
“We have seen on our television screens what this variant did in India ... I am afraid if the same happens in Pakistan, this will be a disaster,” Mudassar Irshad, a 42-year-old father-of-one in Rawalpindi told dpa.
The pace of the vaccination campaign is slow due to supply constraints as only 20 million of the country’s more than 220 million people have had their first jab so far, according to official fingers released on Tuesday.
Islamabad
The highly transmittable Delta variant of Covid-19 has hit Pakistani cities, triggering fears and forcing authorities to put virus hotspots under a strict lockdown.
New infections in Pakistan have risen sharply in July after a decline last month, due to the spread of the variant that originated in neighbouring India.
“Thousands of frightened people queue up in the institute for Covid-19 testing every morning since the outbreak of the Delta variant. They all look distressed,” said Afzal Khan, a spokesman of the National Institute of Health.
Authorities in the capital Islamabad and the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi put at least two dozen neighbourhoods under lockdown to curtail the spread, health officials said.
“The Delta variant is spreading very, very fast ... much faster than all the variants that hit Pakistan in the past. We are on alert,” said Zaeem Zia, Islamabad’s district health chief.
Pakistan, facing a fourth wave of the deadly virus, has seen a 40 percent rise in daily infections this week, with total cases nearing 1 million and more than 22,500 deaths.
“We have largely been spared by Covid-19 so far, but no idea where Delta variant leads us,” Pakistan’s health chief doctor Faisal Sultan said.
“We have seen on our television screens what this variant did in India ... I am afraid if the same happens in Pakistan, this will be a disaster,” Mudassar Irshad, a 42-year-old father-of-one in Rawalpindi told dpa.
The pace of the vaccination campaign is slow due to supply constraints as only 20 million of the country’s more than 220 million people have had their first jab so far, according to official fingers released on Tuesday.
