Clinical Guidelines Finalized to Prevent Omicron Variant: DGHS

Directorate General of Health Services  (DGHS) has finalised clinical guidelines to contain the outbreak of Omicron variant of COVID-19 as the new South African variant is spreading fast in the country.     

In a virtual bulletin, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Spokesperson Prof Dr Nazmul Islam today said, "The number of Omicron variant infected cases is increasing sharply across the country."

Referring to the studies of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU),   Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) and International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (ICDDR, B), he said these studies found that a significant number of people are being infected by Omicron variant of COVID-19 alongside Delta variant.    

The DGHS spokesperson said the new variant is largely responsible for the recent spike of coronavirus across the country and, "For this, the DGHS has finalized the clinical guidelines for combating the spread of the coronavirus."

"We will provide the guidelines to all relevant health organizations to disseminate information related to Omicron among mass people," he added.   

About the symptoms of the highly contagious variant Omicron, Nazmul said the relevant organizations are working to find out symptoms of Omicron.

As per the WHO standard Bangladesh remained well below the danger line as the country witnessed less than five percent positivity rate of COVID-19 for over three months but authorities issued a fresh alert on November 27, 2021 for Bangladesh after the outbreak of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

 WHO has declared the Omicron as a “variant of concern”.

The fresh wave, however, is reported from across the globe following the emergence of the Omicron variant of the virus from South Africa on November 25, 2021 and was first detected in Bangladesh on December 11.