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COVID: Bangladesh reports first cases of new variant BF.7

Bangladesh has detected the first cases of new variant of coronavirus, BF.7, in one Chinese national, who has been kept in quarantine.

Dr Tahmina Shireen, director of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), confirmed the matter on Sunday after testing his sample’s genome sequence.

The highly contagious new Omicron sub-variant of coronavirus, BF.7, has been detected in the country, she said. The presence of a new variant was found in the genome sequence reports of one of the four Covid-19 infected Chinese citizens who travelled to Bangladesh from China recently.

Four Chinese citizens who came from China to Bangladesh on Monday were sent to isolation as they were detected with Covid-19 during health screening at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

“Coronavirus infection was detected in the Chinese nationals through the antigen test,” she said, adding that the four Chinese nationals were sent to Mohakhali DNCC Hospital for isolation.

Their samples were sent to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) for genome sequencing, the result of which was pending on that time.