Staff Reporter :
In the wake of high spreading of the Covid variant Omicron, the government has imposed restrictions on all kinds of public gatherings, including marriage ceremony, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said.
“We have asked Deputy Commissioners that all kinds of family and social functions and gatherings have to be stopped from now on as the covid is spreading seriously,” the health minister said it while addressing the media after attending the DC conference over health ministry affair session.
The health minister said that he had asked DCs to keep strict monitoring on screenings to all land ports, maritime ports and airports.
He also asked them to monitor quarantine procedures so that no one can go out before completing his tenure and could not infect others.
Meanwhile, sources said, seven more cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 have been detected in the country, taking the total tally to 62 on Thursday.
Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), the global database for genomic data on the coronavirus confirmed this.
On December 11, Bangladesh reported its first two cases of the Omicron variant with the Bangladesh women cricket team returned from Zimbabwe after taking part in the ICC Women’s World Cup qualifiers.
The event was, postponed in the midway due to the rise of infection of Omicron variant.
As the upward trend of daily Covid-19 cases driven by the Delta variant continues in the country, the number of active cases has seen an alarming 700pc increase since the beginning of the year 2022. The number of confirmed cases minus the number of recovered cases and deaths are considered as active cases.
The health minister said also that DCs also helped vaccination programme so that every eligible one can be inoculated.
Elaborating statement on inoculation, the minister said that they carried on booster dose vaccination among the eligible people. He said also that about one crore and 25 lakhs of students have been inoculated with covid jabs in a month.
“More than 90 pc of the students have got vaccines,” he claimed.
The health minister said also that the government has managed to install 10 ICU beds and 10 dialysis beds in every district’s Sadar hospital. The process of installation is ongoing while the matter has been passed by ECNEC, he added. The health minister said that DCs have demanded to install hospitals in divisional cities. The government has initiated to construct those hospitals.
The Prime Minister immediately inaugurated those hospitals which have 450 beds.
Those hospitals have facilities to treat cancer, kidney and heart disease patients, the health minister said.
He said that his ministry has made plan to construct such more hospitals with treatment facilities including Neuroscience, Orthopedic, Mental Health and Skin diseases.
