Rab have arrested two people for illegally selling jammer, repeater and network boosters from the city’s Mohammadpur area on Sunday. Arrestees Md. Abu Noman, 28, and Sohel Rana, 37, used to sell these products via Facebook and e-commerce platforms, they said during interrogation. Also read: 3 arrested in Ctg over gang rape of girl who escaped from Cumilla During the operation Rab recovered four mobile network jammers, 24 jammer antennas, three power cables, three mobile network boosters, nine outdoor antennas for booster, 26 indoor antennas for booter, 37 booster cables and a laptop from them. The duo sold more than 200 jammers and network boosters in the last two years. There are two cheque fraud cases against Sohel Rana in Chittagong and Khulna districts, said Beena Rani Das Additional Police Super, Staff Officer (Ops & Media). Also read: New Market clashes: Three arrested Purchase and sale of all these instruments and parts without the approval of BTRC is a punishable offense. Legal action is being taken against the arrestees, she said.

People will be eligible for taking booster shot four months after receiving the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Wednesday. “We are conducting the vaccination activities successfully and during the peak time of the pandemic we provided medical services to both Covid and non-Covid patients,” he said at a press briefing on the occasion of the National Deworming Week, held at the ministry. READ: Mass vaccination campaign to continue till Feb 28: Minister Besides, the government has taken an initiative to launch a special vaccination campaign aiming to bring 3.25 crore people under vaccination from March 17 to March 31, marking the birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Deworming week The deworming week will start from March 20 and deworming tablets will be given for children aged between 5-16 at all primary and secondary level educational institutions across the country at free of cost. The week-long campaign will be held in all government, private schools, madrashas and orphanages. READ: Regular vaccination campaign to continue even after Feb 26: Minister Some 4 crore children will be brought under the deworming campaign and the dropped out students and street children will be brought under the campaign.

People above 40 years will be eligible to take Covid booster shots as the government has lowered the minimum age limit for it, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Sunday. “We’ve nine crores of Covid vaccine doses in hand. The government has lowered the age limit for receiving Covid booster shots to 40 from 50. Some people have taken booster shots. So, the government has decided to lower the age limit to 40,” he said. The minister came up with the information at a press briefing at Mohakhali BCPS Auditorium in the morning over the overall Covid situation in Bangladesh. READ: COVID-19 vaccine booster drive is faltering in the US “We’ll bring all those above 12 under the vaccination programme. Earlier, we provided vaccines to school and college students but now all above 12, including the madrasah students, will be brought under the vaccination programme,” he said. Replying to a question about the vaccination process, the Health Minister said, “Those above 12 can get the vaccine when they’ll go to the vaccine centres. We won’t let anyone go unvaccinated.” Answering a question about vaccinating children above five years, the minister said, “We’ve had discussions with the World Health Organisation over the issue and they said they’ll let us know.” The government has taken a decision to give Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the floating population including day labourers  as one dose of the vaccine can prevent Covid-19, he said. “We have got some Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses from the US under COVAX facility and the vaccination will start soon,” he added. On January 20, some 3.36 lakh doses of J & J vaccine arrived in the country. On December 28 last year, Bangladesh officially began administering booster doses of a Covid-19 vaccine but "on a limited scale". Initially, citizens, aged above 60, received the booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine. On January 12, the Directorate General of Health Services’ (DGHS) instructed to administer Moderna vaccine instead of the Phfizer jabs as the third or booster dose at all vaccine centres across the country. On January 17, the government lowered the age limit for receiving the Covid booster dose up to 50. Covid situation in Bangladesh Bangladesh reported 21 more Covid-linked deaths with 10,378 fresh cases in 24 hours till Saturday morning. The daily positivity rate dropped to 31.10 per cent from highest-ever 33.37 per cent recorded on Friday after testing 33,373 samples during the period, according to the DGHS. The country logged its earlier highest daily positivity rate at 32.55% on July 24 last year reporting 6,780 cases and 195 deaths. READ: Booster shots needed against omicron, CDC studies show On Friday, Bangladesh reported 20 Covid-linked deaths with 15,440 fresh cases. The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 28,329 while the caseload mounted to 1,731,149. Meanwhile, the mortality rate further declined to 1.60 per cent. However, the recovery rate also declined to 88.18 per cent with the recovery of 1,109 more patients during the 24-hour period.

Moderna said Monday that a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine should offer protection against the rapidly spreading omicron variant. Moderna said lab tests showed the half-dose booster shot increased by 37 times the level of so-called neutralizing antibodies able to fight omicron. And a full-dose booster was even stronger, triggering an 83-fold jump in antibody levels, although with an increase in the usual side effects, the company said. While half-dose shots are being used for most Moderna boosters, a full-dose third shot has been recommended for people with weakened immune systems. Also read: Omicron may sideline two leading drugs against COVID-19 Moderna announced the preliminary laboratory data in a press release and it hasn’t yet undergone scientific review. But testing by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, announced last week by Dr. Anthony Fauci, found a similar jump. Pfizer’s testing likewise found its COVID-19 vaccine triggered a similarly big jump in omicron-fighting antibodies. The vaccines made by Pfizer and by Moderna, both made with mRNA technology, are used by many countries around the world to fight the coronavirus. Also read: WHO: Omicron detected in 89 countries, cases doubling fast

Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Sunday said the booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine will work against the newly emerged variant Omicron. “We’ve information that Omicron can largely be prevented by taking booster doses,” he said while inaugurating the trial administration of booster doses at Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons (BCPS) in Mohakhali in the morning. As the government has enough stock of vaccines, the decision to administer the third booster dose has been taken, said Minister Maleque. “Anyone who has taken the first two doses of any Covid-19 vaccines is eligible to receive the Pfizer booster shot,” he said. Read: Covid-19: Bangladesh rolls out booster dose in Dhaka Above 60 senior citizens, patients with comorbidities and frontliners will get the booster shots on a priority basis, the minister said. He said: “As per our plan to bring 70 per cent of the population under vaccination, we need to vaccinate 12 crore people by April, 2020.”

Bangladesh on Sunday started administering the Covid-19 booster dose to health workers on trial basis in capital Dhaka to fight off Covid-19. The booster dose is being administered at Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons (BCPS) in Mohakhali area of the city in the morning. “Initially, the booster dose will be administered on a low scale as a caution. After observing the effects of the vaccine for a few days, it’ll be rolled out for others,” Dr Abu Hossain Md Mainul Ahsan, the Civil Surgeon of Dhaka district, told journalists on Saturday in a virtual briefing. READ: Booster doses for health workers from Sunday: Dhaka Civil Surgeon Besides, doctors, nurses and health workers will get the dose, while senior citizens will get it in the next phase, keeping their comorbidities in mind.” said the Civil Surgeon. On December 13, the Cabinet directed the authorities concerned, particularly the health minister and the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19, to work on a precise guideline over the campaign of booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine in Bangladesh. Earlier, the Prime Minister instructed the technical committee to work on a precise guideline on when the booster dose campaign needs to be started. On December 12, the National Technical Advisory Committee (NTAC) on Covid-19 recommended booster shots for the citizens above 60 and frontliners. The senior citizens and frontliners who got the two doses of vaccine six months ago will get the booster dose, the NTAC recommended at a meeting. It also suggested all to take steps to limit public gatherings, meetings and rallies to contain the spread of Omicron. On December 9, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Omicron is now present in 57 countries and asked all countries to stay alert about the new variant. READ: Booster at least 80% effective against severe Omicron A WHO panel named the Coronavirus variant ‘Omicron’ and classified it as a highly transmissible virus of concern, the same category that includes the predominant delta variant, which is still a scourge driving higher cases of sickness and death in Europe and parts of the USA. Amid the growing concern over the new ‘Omicron’ variant of coronavirus, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) suggested the implementation of 15 instructions to prevent the spread of the new variant and urged all concerned to take measures to enforce the instructions. After Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the Covid-19 vaccination programme in Bangladesh on January 27, the health ministry rolled out the inoculation drive at five government hospitals in Dhaka on January 28. Meanwhile, UK researchers have analysed the likely impact that a Covid booster shot will have on Omicron and say it could provide around 85% protection against severe illness. The protection is a bit less than vaccines given against earlier versions of Covid, reports BBC.

UK researchers have analysed the likely impact that a Covid booster shot will have on Omicron and say it could provide around 85% protection against severe illness. The protection is a bit less than vaccines gave against earlier versions of Covid, reports BBC. But it means the top-up dose should still keep many people out of hospital. It comes as a record 861,306 number of booster jabs and third doses were given in the UK on Thursday. The modelling, from the team at Imperial College London, is based on limited information on Omicron. The researchers say there is a high degree of uncertainty until more real-world information is gathered about this new variant that is spreading quickly. Experts are still trying to figure out how mild or severe Omicron will turn out to be. Vaccines help teach the body how to fight Covid. But the current ones in use were not designed to combat the heavily-mutated Omicron variant, meaning they are not a perfect match. To get round that, people in the UK are being advised to have a booster dose to build up higher antibody levels to fight the virus. Antibodies can stick onto the virus to stop it entering cells and replicating. Studies have suggested a 20 to 40-fold reduction in the ability of these antibodies to take out the virus in double-vaccinated people. READ: US faces a double coronavirus surge as omicron advances The preliminary work from Imperial assumes there will be a drop in vaccine efficacy against Omicron. Even with a booster, protection against severe disease from Omicron may be around 80 to 85.9%, compared to around 97% for Delta - the other variant that is currently dominant in the UK. However, there are other parts of the immune system, such as T cells, that can fight Covid too. The modelling could not assess the impact of these. One of the Imperial researchers Prof Azra Ghani said: "One remaining uncertainty is how severe the disease caused by the Omicron variant is compared to disease caused by previous variants. "Whilst it may take several weeks to fully understand this, governments will need to put in place plans now to mitigate any potential impact. "Our results demonstrate the importance of delivering booster doses as part of the wider public health response." Dr Clive Dix, former chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, said: "There is a huge amount of uncertainty in these modelled estimates and we can only be confident about the impact of boosters against Omicron when we have another month of real-world data on hospitalisation, ICU [intensive care] numbers and deaths. "It remains the case that we still need to get vaccines current and future to the whole world." Cases of Omicron are rising - and there's more to come. The UK has recorded 3,201 new cases of the Omicron variant, up from yesterday's figure of 1,691. It takes the total number of confirmed Omicron cases in the UK to 14,909 - although the true figure is believed to be much higher because not all labs can detect the variant and not everyone will come forward for testing. READ: Pfizer confirms COVID pill’s results, potency versus omicron So how long will it go on for? The modellers aren't sure yet. They're talking about peaks early in the new year - if you keep on doubling and doubling and doubling cases, there'll eventually be more people getting infected than there are people in the UK - so there is a limit on this. The real question - which still hasn't been answered - then becomes: how ill does it make people and how much pressure is it going to put on the healthcare system?

As the global debate over Covid booster shots gathers steam in wealthier countries, public health experts in Bangladesh contend it is still "premature" to roll out the third dose in this country. They say that available vaccines would be better used to inoculate the unvaccinated -- not to mention that a large swath of the population in Bangladesh is yet to get the first shot. Though some wealthier countries have already started administering the booster shots, the experts say there is no credible scientific evidence, except some sponsored studies, so far to support the need for the same. Instead they urge the government to strengthen the ongoing vaccination drive and increase its coverage to ensure that at least 80 percent of the eligible population are inoculated with the first shot at the earliest. Read: Resource for journalists around the world on COVID-19 vaccines Some say the world may get very effective oral medicines to defeat the deadly virus in a couple of years.