Prevent Omicron from entering the country at all costs

As Omicron, a new variant of the coronavirus, is spreading fast across the world and countries are imposing travel bans and stepping up efforts to contain its spread, we must not lag behind in taking all the precautionary measures needed to stop the variant from entering our country. Considering the current situation, the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 has already recommended imposing travel bans on countries where the new variant has been found. The committee has also suggested that people who arrived in Bangladesh in the last 14 days from any of the countries where Omicron has been detected should be in institutional quarantine, and has stressed the need for wearing face masks everywhere, including in educational institutions, and the limiting of mass gatherings. However, whether we will be able to prevent the new variant from spreading will largely depend on how these recommendations are followed by the authorities concerned and the people at large. As far as we know, the civil aviation authorities have not yet issued any travel restrictions, although they have directed the international airports in the country to remain on high alert to prevent the spread of the new variant.

What we know so far about the new strain is that it is far more transmissible than the Delta variant, which wreaked havoc in Bangladesh as well as around the world only a few months back. Although we still don't know how deadly Omicron is, one thing we do know is that the variant has 32 mutations in its spike protein, which is about double the number associated with the Delta variant. One major concern regarding this variant is how effective the existing vaccines will be against it because of its large number of mutations. As a result, we must immediately prepare to deal with the new variant.

Imposing travel restrictions is particularly important for a country like ours, because if this highly transmissible virus strain does spread here, our weak healthcare sector might not be able to provide proper treatment to the large number of patients who might get infected with it. Given our poor track record of maintaining simple health guidelines such as wearing masks and avoiding social gatherings, it could be easily assumed what might happen if the new coronavirus variant does enter the country.

If that happens, we may not have any other option but to impose another lockdown, which will have serious negative impacts on our economy that has just started to recover from the damage done by the previous two lockdowns. Therefore, the authorities should immediately impose travel bans without any hesitation. Beside imposing travel bans, maintaining strict screenings at the airports, ensuring institutional quarantine, preparing our healthcare facilities and strictly maintaining the health guidelines are some of the most important measures that we should enforce right now.