Daily Covid cases reach nearly 1,500 after 5 months

Daily Covid cases in Bangladesh reached almost 1,500 again after five months as 14,828 more cases were recorded on Monday.

The daily cases had been going down since 15,776 Covid cases were recorded on 3 August last year.

In 24 days of January, the country logged 1,14,425 Covid cases which are three times higher than the combined tally of the previous three months.

Fifteen deaths due to the virus were also reported on Monday, which was 14 on the previous day.

Besides, the positivity rate rose to 32.37% after testing 45,807 samples, which is the second-highest since 24 July last year when the 32.55% rate was the highest recorded.

From 17-23 January, new Covid patient detection and deaths increased 180.8% and 88.1% respectively, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

Bangladesh has so far registered 28,238 deaths and 16,99,964 infections.

3 subtypes of Omicron circulating in Dhaka: icddr,b

At least three different subtypes of the Omicron variant have been circulating in Dhaka, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) said in a recent report.

"Complete genomic analysis of Omicron variants reported in Bangladesh suggests that at least three strains of Omicron variants are active in Bangladesh," the report said.

It also said Omicron was identified in 260 out of 379 samples (69%) positive for Covid in its lab. The samples were collected from Dhaka City during the first two weeks of January. The median age of Omicron infected patients (33.5 years) was less than those infected by Delta (40 years).

icddr,b also interviewed 29 Omicron-infected patients over the phone and found 27 patients – 13 male and 16 female – had mild or no symptoms, 24 of them had received two doses of vaccine, three had received only one dose, and only one was hospitalised for a day. None but one, who came from Saudi Arabia, had travelled abroad.

The Omicron variant was first identified in Bangladesh on 6 December last year. The initial two Omicron cases were carried by two passengers who returned from Africa. The total number of Omicron cases in the country stood at 69 on Monday.

Meanwhile, State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain said a decision would be taken after reviewing the situation for seven days to determine whether the restrictions imposed by the government to reduce Covid cases would continue after 6 February.

"If everyone adheres to the restrictions, it will bring good results for all. After a week, we will see what the situation is. Based on that, I will give further instructions," said the state minister at a briefing on Monday.

He also said the field administration has been instructed to implement the 11-point restrictions.