The lightning spread of Omicron, a new variant of Covid-19 in Europe, USA Africa, neighbour India and elsewhere around the globe has already sent a message to Bangladesh to remain well-prepared to deal with it in advance. Therefore, in the wake of Omicron emergence in many countries, we all must follow health guidelines and use face-masks in public places and gatherings in order to deal with the possible third wave of the pandemic in our country.
More than 2,650 domestic flights or international ones starting or finishing in the United States had been canceled -- almost as many as the 2,750 scrapped over the course of Saturday due to bad weather or airline staffing woes sparked by a surge in Covid cases in USA. That figure represented well over half of the nearly 4,400 flights canceled around the world. Almost 8,600 US flights were delayed.
We want swift measures to
contain the spread of Omicron
variant in Bangladesh
Besides, several European countries like Britain, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Portugal continued to report record high Coronavirus cases, as the Omicron variant continues to surge across the continent. Reportedly, West Bengal has imposed a series of fresh coronavirus disease-related restrictions from Monday, under which all schools and colleges in the state will once again shut their gates. Moreover, restrictive measures have also been imposed on shopping malls, market complexes, restaurants, and bars, wherein they will now allow only 50 per cent of their total capacity.
However, Bangladesh is in a good position as its public life has returned to normalcy with the running of all government and private offices, educational institutions, industrial factories, public transports and shopping malls. Besides, thousands of people continue thronging the tourism hotspots like Cox's Bazar and Kuakata sea beaches and other beautiful places of the country. Apart from these, academic activities are going on in full swing as our students are now attending classes physically at their respective schools, colleges and universities.
Read more: Women more vulnerable to Omicron than men: DGHS
It is alarming to note that most of the people in Bangladesh are not following the health rules. Hence, the government needs to compel the people to follow health rules when they will be in mass gatherings. Health protection guidelines and safe physical distance will have to be maintained in every programme like seminar, training, workshop and other programmes.
We want swift measures to prevent the spread of Omicron variant in Bangladesh. So, as a fresh surge of Coronavirus is visible and different variants of this virus have come here, the government will have to take prompt steps as it did in the past.
