Professor Mohammad Saeed Quraishy, the Vice Chancellor of Dow University of Health Sciences is leading a team of researchers in Pakistan, which think the novel coronavirus responsible for local transmission is not genetically the same as that detected in Wuhan, China.

The novel coronavirus sample under study from the research team was detected in the BSL-3 virology lab in Dow University, one of Pakistan’s first labs to carry out PCR testing for Covid-19. The lab is also conducting free tests.

The research is in its initial stages, and is being conducted in coordination with the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences.

While examining the DNA structure of the virus which was contracted locally by a young boy, the researchers observed that the sequence had slight mutations as compared to the virus that originated in Wuhan, China. The patient from which the sample was collected, contracted the virus in a case of local transmission from an individual who was infected in Saudi Arabia. The researchers have noted that the local spread of the virus is extremely fast, 15 people from the boy’s family contracted the virus from the same source.

The research team will also analyse further samples of the virus that have arrived from other countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Syria, Iran, Iraq and other Gulf states.