80% of Covid positive in January had Omicron, 20% Delta: IEDCR

At least 80 percent of those testing positive for Covid-19 -- between January 1 and January 31, 2022 -- were infected with Omicron and 20 percent with Delta variant, said a report published by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) today.

To learn of the spread of different variants, four research laboratories in Dhaka, including IEDCR, did the genomic sequence of samples collected from 148 patients, IEDCR said on its website.

Of them, 118 were infected with the Omicron variant and 30 with Delta. Of the Omicron variant, 39 percent were "BA1" sub-variant and 41 percent were "BN2" sub-variant, mentioned the report.

The other three organisations who did the genomic sequence are International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Institute for Developing Science and Health Initiatives (IDesHi) and the Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF).

Last year on December 9, the first two cases of Omicron were reported in the country.