Omicron cases in Bangladesh reach 20

The total number of Omicron cases in Bangladesh rose to 20 as the country reported 10 new cases on Thursday.

All the cases were reported in Dhaka city.

The information on the new Omicron cases was published on the Germany-based global database GISAID on Thursday evening.

The samples were collected from the patients between 14 December and 3 January – including five in the past seven days till 30 December.

There was no data on the travel history of these new Omicron cases available on the website.

The Institute for Developing Science and Health Initiatives (iDesHi), the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research,

Bangladesh (icddr,b) and the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) submitted those genome sequence data.

The country's maiden cases were reported on 8 March 2020 and the first death from the virus was reported on 18 March the same year.