The cases of Omicron variant of Covid-19 have jumped to 106 in Bangladesh, with 37 more infections being detected till Sunday, according to GISAID, a primary source that provides open access to genomic data of Coronavirus.
The latest cases were detected at the lab of PRAVA Health that was later submitted by Genomic Research Lab of Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR).
Read: Covid-19: Bangladesh reports 29 more deaths with 8,345 fresh infections
On January 23, five more cases were found to be Omicron positive, pushing the tally of the new Coronavirus variant, through highly time-consuming and scarcely available genomic sequencing, to 69.
Bangladesh reported its first two Omicron cases on December 11 last year in two members of the Bangladesh women's cricket team that had been forced to return early from the ICC Women's World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe, deep in southern Africa, where the most transmissible variant of SARS-CoV-2 till now is believed to have originated.
Omicron is gradually replacing Delta through community transmission in Bangladesh, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said on January 21.
The variant is spreading at the community level, and its symptoms have similarities with that of seasonal flu, DGHS spokesperson Dr Md Nazmul Islam said.
Covid situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh logged 29 more Covid-linked deaths with 8,345 fresh cases in 24 hours till Sunday morning.
The daily positivity rate slightly declined to 21.50 from Saturday’s 23.83 percent after testing 38,247 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 28,589 while the caseload mounted to 1,861,532.
Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained static at 1.54 percent.
Read: Follow health guidelines; new Omicron to be more contagious: DGHS
However, the recovery rate slightly increased to 86.09 percent with the recovery of 8,159 more patients during the 24-hour period.
In January, the country reported 322 Covid-linked deaths and 2,13,294 new cases while 19,112 recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its earlier highest daily positivity rate at 33.37% reporting 15,440 cases and 20 deaths.