Bangladesh reports 9 more patients with omicron variant of COVID

Bangladesh has detected the omicron variant of COVID-19 in nine more patients, pushing the total number of cases of the new strain in the country to 30.

All the patients are residents of Dhaka.

Germany’s Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, or GISAID, reported the new cases on Monday.

After the new variant spread across the globe, Bangladesh reported its first omicron case on Dec 9. Within a month, the figure has reached 30.

Among the latest cases, six patients live in Mohakhali and the remaining three in Basabo.

The patients from Mohakhali are women aged between 18-52. The patients living in Basabo are two men aged 51 and 30 and one 56-year-old woman.

The samples were collected between Dec 29 and Jan 3, said GISAID. The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, or ICDDR,B, did a genome sequencing of the samples and submitted them to the GISAID.

Earlier, Dr ASM Alamgir, chief scientific officer of the IEDCR said genome sequencing was being done by collecting virus samples from those coming to Bangladesh from abroad and testing positive for the coronavirus.

The IEDCR also took samples from those exposed to the patients who already contracted the virus and sequenced their genomes as well. Some of these individuals then tested positive for omicron.