The health authorities in Bangladesh have issued a 15-point directive to prevent the new coronavirus variant Omicron as its spread has caused concern across the world.
Nazmul Islam, director of the Communicable Diseases Control under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), signed the notification containing the directives issued on Sunday night.
Quoting the World Health Organisation, he said several countries, including the UK, had barred travel to and from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Lesotho where the variant had already been identified.
Experts have said the variant is the most contagious ever found.
That is why the DGHS stressed extra caution as the variant, detected in South Africa, had already spread around the world.
On Sunday, the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 also recommended a travel ban on countries that had confirmed the presence of the Omicron variant.
The 15 directives are
- Ensuring proper screening of passengers arriving from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Estonia, Lesotho and other countries where Omicron has been detected
- Discouraging all kinds of social, political, religious, and other gatherings
- Wearing masks properly at outdoors
- Dine-in facility in restaurants at half the capacities
- Tourist spots, recreation centres, resorts, community centres, cinema/theatre halls, and other programmes, including marriage, birthday, picnic and party, should operate at 50% of the capacities or less
- Health safety rules should be maintained in mosques and other places of worship
- Proper hygiene rules must be followed on public transports
- Mandatory 14-day quarantine for passengers coming from infected countries
- Health rules should be followed in all educational institutions
- Healthcare workers and receivers must wear masks in all medical centres and maintain hygiene rules
- Vaccination campaigns should be conducted in compliance with healthcare guidelines
- Those with Covid-19 symptoms and the people who came in contact with them have to be isolated and quarantined respectively
- Coordinating with local authorities to isolate suspected Covid-19 patients showing symptoms and test their samples
- Masks should be worn by employees in all public and private offices and hygiene rules should be followed while carrying out official tasks
- To raise awareness of wearing masks and following healthcare guidelines, loudspeakers should be used for promotion, including those in use in mosques, temples, and pagodas. Local government officials and elected public representatives can be involved in running awareness campaigns
