DHAKA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Bangladeshi government Thursday confirmed the presence of a new corona virus subvariant JN.1 in the South Asian country.
"The JN.1 strain was found in five COVID-19 patients who don't have any travel history," Tahmina Shireen, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told journalists.
She further said this is the first time that the presence of the JN.1 strain was confirmed in Bangladesh.
Against this backdrop, Bangladesh's Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) under the Ministry of Health issued a notice Thursday, directing the authorities to resume the COVID-19 vaccination program for first, second, and booster (third and fourth) doses.
The Bangladeshi government has planned to administer 250 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by next year, a senior official said here Tuesday.
Jahangir Alam, secretary of Bangladesh's Health Services Division, told journalists that half of these vaccine shots will be administered as a fourth dose this year, and the rest will be administered in 2025.
According to the official, the fresh vaccination drive will prioritize frontline workers and individuals with health vulnerabilities in the wake of concerns over the emergence of the JN.1 variant of COVID-19.
Last month, the World Health Organization classified the JN.1 strain as a separate variant of interest, citing the strain's rapidly increasing spread around the globe.
