<\/p>\n
KARACHI: As citizens find little respite from respiratory infections, the Sindh health department confirmed on Saturday the emergence of five locally transmitted cases of JN.1, the highly contagious new variant of Covid-19, which is currently a cause of concern in several countries.<\/p>\n
The day also saw three more passengers, in their early 20s, testing positive for Covid-19 upon their arrival at the Jinnah International Airport, Karachi.<\/p>\n
The male passengers, two of them arrived from Jeddah and one from Abu Dhabi, hailed from Qambar Shahdadkot, Mohmand Agency and North Waziristan.<\/p>\n
Sources said they left for their homes after being advised to self-quarantine. Their blood samples for detecting the variant they suffered from had been sent to a laboratory, they added.<\/p>\n
\nThree more air travellers test positive for Covid<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The sources said the five locally transmitted cases of JN.1 were reported by the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH). Three of the five patients were women.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe health department is closely monitoring the situation and plans to set up a task force soon to tackle the emerging threat from JN.1,\u201d shared a health department spokesperson.<\/p>\n
He added that the four passengers earlier tested positive for JN.1 were recovering well at home.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Dawn<\/em>, health experts shared that though there seemed to be a slight decrease in the number of respiratory infections in the city, the situation was still worrisome.<\/p>\n
\u201cCases have gone down a bit but we need to be cautious as complications in patients could occur anytime,\u201d said Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, a senior general physician representing the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA).<\/p>\n
He added that recovery in some cases was taking longer than expected time. \u201cThere is a need for increasing screening and testing services as patients report with flu, chest infections and at times with pneumonia and we need to have specific diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seconding his opinion, Dr Altaf Hussain Khatri, another GP and PMA representative, said that while flu cases had reduced, a lot of patients were reporting with persistent cough.<\/p>\n
Karachi has been seeing a rising number of flu cases this season starting from October 2023. Hospitalisation and mortalities have been very low, largely involving the elderly and people with compromised immunity, the experts said.<\/p>\n
Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KARACHI: As citizens find little respite from respiratory infections, the Sindh health department confirmed on Saturday the emergence of five locally transmitted cases of JN.1, the highly contagious new variant of Covid-19, which is currently a cause of concern in several countries. The day also saw three more passengers, in their early 20s, testing positive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/01\/140805426b946c5.png?r=080548","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t