A Study on the Variants of SARS-CoV-2 Circulating in the Gilgit-Baltistan Province

Abstract

Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) is new respiratory illness that is caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus. It was first reported from China in the year 2019. Since its emergence the disease has caused millions of deaths around the world. The SARS-CoV-2 mutates and gives rise to variants, and the most important variants of the virus are the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron variants. This study was aimed at studying the prevalence of COVID-19 in patents suspected of having this disease screened at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad. The other purpose was to know the variants of SARS-CoV-2 responsible for COVID-19 in these patients. From May 2022 to October 2022, a total of 3720 nasopharyngeal samples from patients suspected of having of COVID-19 belonging Gilgit-Baltistan province were tested for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 through the real-time PCR (RT-PCR). Out of these 50 samples were found positive for the virus. Another RT-PCR assay was conducted to know the variants of the virus present in these samples and the results showed that all the 50 samples contained the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Out of the 50 positive samples 31 were from the male patents and 19 were from the females. Highest incidence was in the age-group of 41-50 years, followed by the 10-20 years age-group and the highest number of cases was recorded in the month of July 2022. The results of this study are mostly in agreement with the results of previous studies conducted in Pakistan or elsewhere