Omicron: Bangladesh detects its first cases

Bangladesh today detected its first cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in two female cricketers of the Bangladesh Cricket Team.

"They (the cricketers) returned to the country from Zimbabwe recently," said Health Minister Zahid Maleque at an event at Dhaka Shishu Hospital today.

Both the cricketers are in isolation at a city hotel, he added.

One is 21 years old and the other is 30. According to the global genome sequence database GISAID, the Institute for Epidemiology and Disease Control (IEDCR) collected nasal swabs from both cricketers on December 6.

The IEDCR-ideSHi Genomics Lab then completed the genomic sequencing of these samples and identified them as Omicron variants of Covid-19.

The results were submitted and published on the GISAID website on Thursday.

IEDCR officials could not provide comments immediately.