The Covid-19 pandemic has killed another Pakistani while infected 23 more during the last 24 hours, showed the data released by the National Institute of Health (NIH) on Friday morning. According to the NIH data, the death toll in the country went up to 30,657 whereas the number of total infections now rose to 1,580,654 after adding the fresh 23 cases. During the last 24 hours (Thursday), 2,543 tests were conducted throughout Pakistan whereas the positivity ratio dropped to 0.90%. The number of patients in critical care stood at nine.

The latest subvariant that causes Covid-19 is spreading rapidly, but the World Health Organization considers it to be no more dangerous than the other variations of the novel coronavirus now in circulation.A subvariant of the highly contagious Omicron variant of Covid-19, XBB 1.16 — also known as Arcturus — was initially detected in January 2023. It has spread most widely in India but has been found in 31 countries, including the United States.

“The upward trend of cases warrants public health experts to remind the community on protective measures against the spread of disease,” Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, the director and founding dean of the University of California Irvine’s Program in Public Health, told Medical News Today. “It is concerning that there are so many Omicron subvariants circulating in our communities, but it [should] be part of our daily routine to wear masks and practice safe distancing when one of the subvariants pick up steam,” she added.

Thee US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that slightly less than 10% of new Covid-19 cases in the United States involve the XBB 1.16 strain, with the vast majority of cases represented by the XBB 1.5 Omicron subvariant.“The global risk assessment for XBB.1.16 is low as compared to XBB.1.5 and the other currently circulating variants,” according to the WHO, which noted that “no changes in severity have been reported in countries where XBB.1.16 are reported to be circulating.”

“In India and Indonesia, there has been a slight increase in [hospital] bed occupancy numbers. However, the levels are much lower than seen in previous variant waves,” the organization added.Brad Hutton, a public health consultant at Hutton Health Consulting and former deputy commissioner of public health at the New York State Department of Health, told Medical News Today that Arcturus “appears to have a competitive advantage to the current predominant variant in the globe, XBB.1.5. However, it is unlikely to be a major cause for concern since it does not appear to result in more severe illness than XBB.1.5.”

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP