Ninety-eight percent of the Covid patients recently detected in Bangladesh are of the highly contagious Delta variant while just one percent are of South African Beta variant ones, says a BSMMU survey.  

Vice-Chancellor of the BSMMU (Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University) Prof M Sharfuddin Ahmed, also the supervisor of Genome sequencing research project, revealed the survey report on Thursday after scrutinizing 300 samples collected from June 29 to July 30.  

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The aim of the research is to unveil the character of genome, type of mutation and discover the inter-relations of with global Covid-19 genome as well as preparing a database of Bangladesh Covid-19 genome.  

This is the result of the first month of the BSMMU research and its updated result will be revealed in the months to follow.

The genome sequencing was conducted through next generation sequencing after collecting the nasopharyngeal swab samples of Covid-19 positive patients.

Fifty-three percent of the patients included in the research were male, including people of the age between nine months’ old to 90 years old.

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As no age group of people is immune to coronavirus, it cannot be said that children have no risk of Covid-19 infection, says the research finding.

Besides, the people who have comorbidities like cancer, respiratory problems and diabetes have a high mortality risk. And those above 60 are also at high mortality risk if infected for the second time, it says.

According to the research, UK variant Alpha dominated the country in December 2020, later South African Beta variant dominated in March 2021 but now most people are being infected with the Delta variant.

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The research team also found the existence of a Mauritius variant or Nigerian variant in one sample.

The Delta variant, identified first in India, is now playing havoc in Bangladesh.