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Before the ‘Omicron’ variant enters here

Published : Thursday, 2 December, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 603

When the global pandemic seemed to come under a bit control, emergence of a fast spreading new variant of Coronavirus is ringing alarm bell again.

News reports being regularly published in this daily on the statements virologists are making in this regard trigger our extreme concern. Already a significant number of countries across the world has imposed ban on air travel in a bid to contain its spread.

According to the virologists, the new variant termed Omicronhas reportedly muted 32 times and is the most deadly variant, found so far.

We fear how fast it would spread and how horrific its symptoms would turn out to be, once it starts cutting loose, since100 percent efficacy of existent vaccines has not been proved strongagainst it.

Mutations in viruses -including the Coronavirus are neither new nor unexpected. Variants usually occur when there is a change or mutation in the virus's genes. The spike protein of the variantOmicron is dangerously different from other types of Coronavirus.

So far, a total of 160 people in South Africa, Hong Kong, Botswana and Israel have been diagnosed with Omicron.

As researchers are of grave concern that the variant could spread to other parts of the world, Bangladesh is not risk free.

We suggest our government to immediately consider the National Technical Advisory Committee on C-19's recommendations of issuing travel ban on the countries detected with Omicron.

In the case of tackling the Indian Delta variant, we noted how it entered Bangladesh even after sealing shared borders and beefing up surveillance.

As far as health guideline is concerned, the ground reality in this regard only points at our people'sblatant indifference in following health guidelines. A complacent mentality among people following the reduction in infection and death rate from the third wave is noticed everywhere. Wearing facemasks must be made mandatory.

Experts' stressing on increasedsurveillance simplyindicates that there were significant loopholes in global efforts in responding to the pandemic, particularly following mass vaccination programmes whena far relaxed tendency among people gathered momentum.

We are in full agreement with them in the context of what is going on in our country in public transport, shopping malls, private offices, kitchen markets and the places of social gatherings. Maintaining social distance is noticeably missing.

We don't know how many more lives will have to be spent to work sense of restraint among people.

In this case we think, if the lessons we have already taken from the recent third wave hitting double ton for many consecutive days in death rate are not applied sensibly, we are to pay off more in the days ahead.

We urge the authority concerned to keep a sharp eye on global situation so that it can take effective measures before the worst to come. At the same time we call on everyone to strictly follow WHO recommended health guidelines until upper therapeutic measure is available on board. 






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