Covid-19

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Covid: Bangladesh's situation slowly becoming like India, says report

They have also strengthened the vaccination program and warned of an impending vaccine crisis as the highly contagious Indian version of Covid-19 has been identified in Bangladesh. For the first time, the Indian version of the coronavirus has been identified in Bangladesh, health officials said on Saturday. However, no further details were given.

Over the past few weeks, the genome sequence of the virus with samples from Covid-19 patients has been dominated by South African species in Bangladesh. However, the concern is that the Indian variety is spreading very fast and the first generation vaccines are less effective against it.

Experts say coronavirus infections in Bangladesh have decreased in the last two weeks compared to March and early April. Although it is not yet fully understood why the infection has declined, it has provided ample opportunity to strengthen immunization programs across the country.

Senjuti Saha, a scientist at the Bangladesh Child Health Research Foundation, is sequencing the Indian genome of the coronavirus. She told the Associated Press that now was the time to vaccinate to keep the infection rate low and to prevent the emergence of a new type of Indian strain of the virus.

Meanwhile, India, struggling to cope with the coronavirus crisis in the country, has banned the export of vaccines. The Serum Institute of India was to give a total of 30 million doses of vaccine to Bangladesh in 5 million doses every month by next June. But the country has so far given only seven million doses of vaccine to Bangladesh and has suspended the supply of the vaccine since last February.

With a population of 160 million, Bangladesh is now desperate to collect vaccines from other new sources as an alternative to India.