Published in: The Daily Star
Date: 01 January, 2022

Three more cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus have been detected as the new infections continued to rise for the sixth day yesterday.

With this, the number of confirmed Omicron cases in Bangladesh rose to 10, according to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) — a Germany-based web database.

The new patients with Omicron include two females aged 49 and 65 and a male who is 65, it said. All of them are from Dhaka, according to the data submitted by the Institute for Developing Science and Health Initiatives (ideSHi) in Dhaka. ideSHi collected swabs from those patients on Monday through active surveillance.

The country’s first two Omicron cases were reported on December 9.

The variant — first reported in South Africa — is spreading fast elsewhere leading to widespread curbs.

Twenty countries spanning four continents have reported record-breaking numbers of Covid-19 cases in the past week, highlighting the strain Omicron is exerting on the health systems of both rich and poor nations globally, according to global media.

The World Health Organization has warned of an impending “tsunami” of infections as the highly transmissible coronavirus variant and the Delta strain circulate together.

Yesterday, the DGHS reported 512 new Covid cases in 24 hours preceding 8:00am, up from 509 the previous day.

On Sunday, the country logged 268 cases.

Against a total of 18,673 tests, the positivity rate was 2.78 percent yesterday, up from 2.25 percent the previous day.

On December 21, the positivity rate crossed the 2 percent mark after more than around two months.

Two Covid patients died in those 24 hours, raising the total number of deaths to 28,072, according to the DGHS.

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/health/disease/coronavirus/fallouts-fightback/vaccine/news/3-more-cases-omicron-infections-found-2929746