The National Institutes of Health, Islamabad on Monday confirmed the country’s first Omicron – a new variant of the novel coronavirus – case through genome sequencing.

Pakistan on December 9 reported its first case of Omicron, as per the Sindh Health Department. The new variant was detected in a woman who was admitted at a private hospital in Karachi, it said, adding that the patient had arrived in Pakistan from abroad.

“The National Institutes of Health, Islamabad has been able to confirm (via whole genome sequencing) that a recently suspected sample from Karachi is indeed the ‘Omicron variant’ of SARS-CoV2. This is the first confirmed case but continued surveillance of suspected samples is in place to identify the trends,” the NIH said in a statement shared on Twitter.

The authority added that the new Covid-19 variant case has further highlighted the importance of getting vaccinated to protect from effects of existing and new variants. “Please get yourself vaccinated according to guidelines issued by the NCOC.”