The Delta variant of coronavirus was the dominant strain until the second week of January, as it was responsible for 80 percent cases while Omicron make up only 20 percent infection, finds a study conducted by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU).

Vice Chancellor of BSMMU Prof Dr Md Sharfuddin Ahmed shared the study findings at a programme at Milton Hall on the campus on Tuesday.

“Delta was found to be the dominant variant among patients in our country. However, it is feared that the Omicron cases will increase manyfold in the next month. We will inform you of the actual result this month,” Dr Sharfuddin said.

He said the samples were collected from the outpatient department of the hospital.

Prof Ahmed further said they have conducted a study for six months and 15 days to know about the character of the various variants of the coronavirus detected in the country.

He said they also carried out genome sequencing of coronavirus collecting nasopharyngeal swab samples from 769 Covid patients – aged between nine months to        90 years – from all divisions of the country with the help of the Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology in between 29 June, 2021 and 8 January, 2022.

Of the coronavirus infected patients, the highest number of patients was in between 21 to 59 years, he said.