BCSIR urges citizens not to panic over ‘new virus strain’

Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has urged citizens not to panic over a new COVID variant similar to the strain found in the United Kingdom.

It would not be proper to spread fears over unfinished research into the subject, Prof Md Aftab Ali Shaikh, the chairman of BCSIR, told bdnews24.com on Wednesday.

Media outlets reported that Bangladesh has discovered the new coronavirus variant nearly similar to that of the United Kingdom.

Those outlets cited Principal Scientific Officer Dr Md Salim Khan of BCSIR to report that the agency had carried out a genome sequencing on five samples in early November and that the identified mutation had similarities to the new strain found in the UK.

Dr Salim did not respond to calls from bdnews24.com for comment.

“Giving a statement on a project that we have just begun is pointless. Any comment that could create panic is unnecessary,” Prof Shaikh said. “The research is ongoing. We will disclose the final results to the media after we’re done with this.”

DISCOVERY OF NEW STRAIN

Much of the world shut its borders to Britain after a significantly more transmissible mutated coronavirus variant was discovered spreading swiftly across southern England.

The discovery of the new variant, just months before vaccines are expected to be widely available, sowed a fresh wave of panic in a pandemic that has killed about 1.7 million people worldwide and more than 67,000 in Britain.

Earlier the European Commission advised that non-essential travel to and from Britain should be discouraged but said that people heading home should be allowed to do so, provided they undergo a COVID-19 test or quarantine for 10 days.

Singapore has confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus variant found in the United Kingdom, the city-state said, while 11 others who were already in quarantine had returned preliminarily positive results for the new strain.

All the cases, which were imported from Europe, had been placed in 14-day quarantine at dedicated facilities or isolated upon arrival, and their close contacts had been quarantined earlier.

Scientists say there is no evidence that vaccines currently being deployed in Britain - made by Pfizer and BioNTech - or other COVID-19 shots in development will not protect against this variant, known as the B.1.1.7 lineage

Britain’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance also said COVID-19 vaccines appeared to be adequate in generating an immune response to the variant of the coronavirus.