No new omicron cases detected in Bangladesh: health minister

Health Minister Zahid Maleque says the two women cricketers who returned from Zimbabwe are doing well and no other cases of the omicron variant have been detected so far.

There is no need to worry about the omicron variant, the minister said at an event at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Sunday.

“I believe there is no cause for worry,” he said. “The two of them (the cricketers who contracted the virus) are in isolation. We have not received any reports that this variant has spread to anyone else or that any other cases have been detected.”

The minister made the statement after the government confirmed on Saturday that two cases of the variant, which has alarmed the world with worries of an extended pandemic, were detected in Bangladesh.

The omicron variant has spread quickly in other parts of the world and people should remain alert so that such a situation does not develop in Bangladesh, Maleque said.

He also urged people to get their COVID vaccines, noting that Bangladesh still had a stock of some 40 million doses.