Covid cases keep rising, community transmission not conformed
Health experts, virologists could not yet confirm community transmission of the Omicron variant in the country although the number of daily Covid-19 cases keeps rising, crossing 500 on Thursday.
They suggested genome sequencing to ascertain whether there is any community transmission of the new variant of covid-19 which infects 70 times faster than other corona strains.
Besides, they highly recommended strengthening screening at borders, contact tracing and use of masks to check Omicron transmission in the community.
Talking to the Business Standard (TBS) Dr M Mushtuq Hussain, advisor of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) said whether or not community transmission of Omicron in the country has already taken place would be confirmed if the infection rate increases doubles or triples in next one or two weeks.
He suggested marking those areas as clusters where infection is increasing faster and conducting genome sequencing of the covid positive patients. Besides, he suggested isolating the positive patients and doing contact tracing. Whether the infected person has any previous history of coming in contact with any foreign traveller should be checked too, Dr Mushtuq added.
After 11 weeks, the number of covid cases has crossed 500 in the country. On Wednesday, the number of cases was 495.
Besides, the number of Omicron cases has reached seven until Tuesday since the first two cases were detected on 11 December, according to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), an international database organisation for the virus.
Bangladesh reports seven covid deaths and 509 new cases in the last 24 hours till Thursday 8am.
The positivity rate was recorded at 2.25% after 22,667 samples were tested across the country.
With the latest additions, the death toll reached 28,070 and the case tally increased to 15,85,027 in the country.
Professor Nazrul Islam, noted virologist and member of the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 however thinks the infection rate of covid is on the rise in Bangladesh due to the Omicron variant. But it cannot be confirmed yet as the result is still very low.
"As the severity of Omicron is mild, many patients remain out of the test. As there is risk of increasing the cases if there is Omicron transmission, everyone should be more careful using masks," he observed.
Professor Nazrul also suggested that the hospitals should be kept ready with sufficient oxygen supply if there is rise of covid cases due to Omicron transmission. As community transmission of Omicron has already happened in many countries including neighbouring India, the border screening should be beefed up, he added.
He called upon the government to bring all elderly people under inoculation as soon as possible.
Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) however announced setting up of medical centres and screening centres at the land ports to check transmission of any infectious disease including covid-19.
The new variant Omicron was first detected in South Africa on November 11, and then in Botswana and Hong Kong, before it rippled across more than 110 countries, as at last weekend.
Omicron is already dominant in Australia, India, Russia, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Experts in Singapore, where 170 new Omicron cases were reported on Wednesday, have warned that the new and supposedly more contagious variant is likely to replace Delta over the coming weeks to months, reports The Business Standard on Thursday.
Vaccines will be provided at wards through January
DGHS is set to begin covid-19 vaccination campaign at EPI centres at wards in the unions, Dr Shamsul Haque, member secretary of the National Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment Programme told media on Thursday.
There is a target to administer three crore doses of vaccines during this month-long rural campaign, Dr Shamsul added.
Bangladesh has been providing vaccines since 7 February when 7.24 crore people have received the first dose and 5.11 crore second dose. Moreover, 15415 people received booster doses so far.