Around 20 per cent of the coronavirus infected people in the country now are infected with the South African variant Omicron. The remaining 80 per cent patients are infected either with the highly contagious variant of the virus, Delta or other variants.
Professor Dr Sharfuddin Ahmed, Vice Chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) and chief patron (supervisor) of the Genome Sequencing Research Project came up with the assertion while speaking at a press conference on Tuesday to mark the publication of the results of a genome sequencing study.
The purpose of the genome sequencing research of Covid-19 is to uncover the genome character of the virus, the type of mutation and its interaction with the genome of the global Covid-19 virus and to create a database of Bangladeshi Covid-19 genome.
Referring to the findings of the BSMMU Covid-19 genome sequencing research, Professor Dr Sharfuddin Ahmed also said that they (BSMMU) detected 20 percent highly contagious Omicron cases, decoding genome sequencing of collected samples from coronavirus patients between December 8, 2021, and January 8, 2022.
He said, “The study included all types of patients, from 9-month-old to 90-year-old. The highest number of patients was aged from 21 to 58 years old. Corona genome sequencing was performed from next generation sequencing from a neopharyngeal swab sample of a total of 769 Covid-19 positive patients.
The research shows that the omicron variant is likely to grow exponentially. The final results will be given out by the end of the month, he added.
