by Raheela Nazir
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- As countries around the world scrambled to deal with the newly-discovered Omicron variant of COVID-19, Pakistan braced itself to counter the impending threat by taking a string of stringent and proactive measures.
Pakistani experts and officials believed that the emergence of Omicron further underlined the importance of nationwide vigorous vaccination drive and adherence to basic preventative measures of wearing masks and maintaining social distance to fight against Omicron that the World Health Organization named a "variant of concern."
Asad Umar, chairman of the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) which oversees the country's response to the pandemic, earlier this week urged the Pakistani people to get fully vaccinated in order to protect themselves from the new variant.
"Omicron is wreaking havoc. It will also eventually affect Pakistan as well... The variant has spread across the world and it will be impossible to stop it from entering Pakistan because the world is so inter-connected... the logical solution to thwart the new variant is full vaccination," Umar said.
Although Omicron has not been detected in the country, the Pakistani government has taken a number of initiatives, such as setting up dozens of call centers across the country to persuade people to get the second dose of vaccine, reviving contact-tracing system, increasing the number of daily tests, door-to-door vaccination drive and enhanced precautionary measures at airports.
The country on Wednesday started free-of-cost booster dose administration for healthcare workers, immunocompromised people, and people above 50 years of age.
On Saturday, the NCOC announced to ban direct or indirect inbound travel from some countries and regions including South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, among others, with immediate effect to stop the spread of Omicron.
The country's worst-affected southern Sindh province in terms of COVID-19 infections, imposed fresh restrictions to tackle the imminent threat of Omicron, particularly in districts with a slow pace of vaccinations.
According to the notification issued by the provincial government on Tuesday, business activities are allowed to continue until 10:00 p.m., however, pharmacies, grocery stores and other essential services will be able to operate 24 hours.
The Sindh government also limited the attendance of people in hotels, restaurants and wedding halls, according to the notification, adding that only vaccinated individuals will be allowed to take part in activities related to tourism, board a flight, and enter parks.
Zakia Latif, associate professor at the Institute of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of the Punjab, Pakistan, said that it is too early to predict about Omicron, but considering its pattern so far, the new strain is even deadlier than the existing Delta variant and more resistant to vaccines than the original version of the coronavirus.
"It is likely that it can breach the immunity built up by the previous infection or even vaccination," Latif said, adding that booster jabs will be helpful to control the spread.
People should not lose vigilance against the pandemic and continue to follow the standard operating procedures set by the government and reach out to vaccination centers as early as possible to get themselves vaccinated, she said.
"Together we can defeat the new threat to mankind," she added. Enditem