Bangladesh reports first Omicron cases

Bangladesh has detected the first cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in two Bangladeshi women cricketers who returned from Zimbabwe last week. 

Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on Saturday that they were both in quarantine and good health.

Experts have now called for getting more vigilant at the border and outside the border of the country. 

According to them, if individuals and the government are all vigilant to prevent the "variant of concern" by taking lessons from the Delta variant, the loss of life will be reduced and the economy will remain active.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said screening has been strengthened and hospital beds have been made ready to deal with Omicron.

The two women cricketers – 21 and 30 years old – are currently in quarantine at a hotel in the capital.  

"All the treatment they need is going on. From time to time it is checked how much Omicron load is in their bodies now. It may take two weeks for them to fully recover," the health minister said.

"We are doing contact tracing, and everyone who was by their side or came in contact with them has been tested. The whole team is in quarantine. So there is no problem."

Replying to a question about the Covid booster dose, Zahid Maleque said, "We are waiting for recommendations of the National Advisory Committee. Work is underway to update the app. We hope to start the booster dose programme in seven to ten days."

"Different countries are giving booster doses to elderly people. We also decided to give a booster dose to the elderly. We will give a booster dose to those who are in their sixties and the frontline workers," he added.

Professor ABM Khurshid Alam, director general at the DGHS, told The Business Standard, "All members of the cricket team returning from Zimbabwe and their contacts have been tested for Covid. So far, only two have tested positive. They will be tested again after 14 days."

He said screening at ports and airports is being intensified and hospitals have been told to remain ready if the infection increases again.

As the number of Covid patients is very low, other patients are being treated in Covid dedicated hospitals, he said, adding "As there is no new treatment for Omicron, we are prepared for the treatment that was given earlier."

Bangladesh reported five new Covid deaths and 177 new cases in the last 24 hours till 8 am Saturday. The current positivity rate was reported at 1.13%.

With the latest additions, the death toll reached 28,022 and the case tally increased to 15,78,996 in the country. 

A month and a half ago, the Bangladesh women's team went to Zimbabwe to play in the qualifying round of the Women's ODI World Cup. But due to the new coronavirus variant of Omicron, the game was suspended mid-way.

As they were ahead in the rankings, Bangladesh women's team qualified for the ODI World Cup for the first time and returned home on 1 December. On 6 December, it was learned that two cricketers had contracted the coronavirus.

On 6 December, the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) collected the swabs of the two women cricketer and sequenced them, Principal Scientific Officer Dr ASM Alamgir told TBS on Saturday.

The IEDCR completed the genomic sequencing of these samples and identified them as the Omicron variant.

The results were submitted and published on the global genome sequence database GISAID website on Thursday.

The Bangladesh government has recently made 14 days of institutional quarantine mandatory for those returning from seven African countries which have detected Omicron. 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Omicron variant has so far been reported in 57 nations and the number of patients needing hospitalisation is likely to rise as it spreads.

India, a neighbouring country of Bangladesh, has so far identified 34 omicron patients.  

On 26 November, the WHO declared the Omicron variant, which was first detected in southern Africa, a variant of concern. It is the fifth SARS-CoV-2 strain to carry such a designation.

Referring to the risk of reinfection, the WHO said, "Preliminary analysis suggests that the mutations present in the Omicron variant may reduce neutralising activity of antibodies resulting in reduced protection from natural immunity."

"We have to be more careful because Omicron spreads quickly and causes reinfection. There is still a lot of information to be learned about Omicron. We do not yet know if those who have not been vaccinated are at risk of death if infected," Dr M Mushtuq Husain, adviser at IEDCR, told TBS.

"So before the cases escalate, everyone has to wear a mask, avoid gatherings and get vaccinated. We can give the vaccine; we need to use it to bring more people under the vaccination quickly. Be careful now to avoid economic and social damage like Delta."

Omicron is 4.2 times more transmissible than delta, according to a study in Japan.

Early data from South Africa, the epicentre so far, shows that the virus appears to spread far faster than earlier strains but it also doesn't appear to be causing severe disease, reports Bloomberg. 

The mutated virus may be spreading faster in England than in South Africa, with UK cases possibly topping 60,000 a day by Christmas, according to epidemiologist John Edmunds. On Friday, the UK reported almost 58,200 cases.

South Africa's three biggest private hospital operators say cases are much milder than in earlier waves. There are few people on oxygen or ventilators and only a slight uptick in deaths.

Currently, there are about 5,000 people with Covid in South African hospitals, a quarter of the peaks seen in the previous two waves.