Home ›› 02 Jan 2023 ›› Front
A patient infected with Omicron sub-variant BF.7 has been found in Bangladesh, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) confirmed on Sunday.
He is one of the four returnees from China who tested positive for Covid-19 at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Monday, and were then kept in isolation, said Prof Dr Najmul Islam, director (diseases control) of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Dr Nazmul said they are not worried about the detection of Omicron sub-variant cases in the country.
“We don’t want anyone to get panicked, as the positivity rate in the country is now below one per cent. But we have taken the matter seriously and trying to prevent its spread,” he said.
Replying to a question, he said that they are closely monitoring the situation and testing those regularly who are returning to the country from the affected countries. Those who tested positive for Covid-19 are being sent to isolation centres, he added.
In the wake of the surge in the new sub-variant of Covid-19 infections, Omicron BF.7, in different countries including China and India, the government has asked all to take necessary steps in maintaining health guidelines in all airports, land ports, and river ports across the country.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) issued a notice in this regard on December 26.
The emergence of new sub-variant Omicron BF.7 is most likely responsible for the current surge of Covid-19 infection in China, India, and other countries which is more transmissible, said the DGHS.
To contain the spread of Covid, DGHS has instructed the authorities concerned to strengthen surveillance and screening of people coming to Bangladesh from countries including China, India, Japan, South Korea, the US, France, Brazil, and Germany.
In September 2022, a new subvariant of Omicron was identified in the bodies of three Bangladeshis at the Jashore University of Science and Technology (JUST) Genome Center. It was named BA 2.75.
A group of researchers from the Genome Center identified this new strain of coronavirus on Sunday through partial genome sequencing of the virus collected from three infected people in Jessore.
JUST Vice-Chancellor and Genome Center Director Professor Dr Md Anwar Hossain said that this subvariant can easily evade the human immune system.
“Therefore, there is no alternative to strictly following hygiene rules, including using masks,” he added.
The research team reported that this sub-variant of Omicron was first detected in India in July 2022 and was previously detected in different countries of the world in August 2021. Even vaccinated people can be infected by this subvariant.
A large study in the United States found that the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV2 virus is intrinsically as severe as previous variants, unlike assumptions made in previous studies that it was more transmissible but less severe, Reuters reported in May 2022.
“We found that the risks of hospitalisation and mortality were nearly identical between periods,” said four scientists who conducted the study based on records of 1,30,000 Covid-19 patients, referring to times in 2021 and 2022 when different variants were dominant across the world.
The study, which was posted on Research Square on May 2, 2022, was adjusted for confounders including demographics, vaccination status, and the Charlson comorbidity index that predicts the risk of death within a year of hospitalisation for patients with specific comorbid conditions.
