Bangladesh remains alert to prevent new African variant: Maleque

Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque on Saturday said Bangladesh remains alert to prevent the highly contagious new African variant Omicron.

“We have directed all relevant organizations to take emergency measures to prevent highly contagious new African variant Omicron,” he told in an audio statement while leaving for Geneva, Switzerland for attending the World Health Assembly Second Special Session, an official release said.

Maleque said the government has been informed that the new recently-discovered B.1.1.529 strain of Covid-19 (Omicron) has spread in several countries of African and Europe.

All gateways including air, land and waterways have been instructed to conduct screening of all passengers of Omicron infected countries to stop possible transmission of the new variant, he added.

On Thursday scientists in South Africa said they had detected a new Covid-19 variant (Omicron) with multiple mutations.

The World Health Organization on Friday declared the recently-discovered B.1.1.529 strain of Covid-19, first detected in southern Africa, to be a variant of concern and renamed it Omicron.

The classification puts Omicron into the most-troubling category of Covid-19 variants, along with the globally-dominant Delta, plus its weaker rivals Alpha, Beta and Gamma.