Dhaka, Dec 14 (IANS): Bangladesh is planning to step up its campaign to administer booster shots against Covid-19 following the discovery of confirmed cases of the Omicron variant.

The government issued a directive to relevant departments at a regular cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the wake of the rapidly transmissible variant Omicron surfacing in different parts of the world as well as in Bangladesh, reports Xinhua news agency.

The directive also followed the latest suggestions of the country's health consultative body, which recommended senior citizens and frontliners get a booster shot six months after the second dose.

The government's National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 suggested that the frontliners and those aged 60 and above, who received the second jab at least six months ago, be given booster doses.

The committee also recommended limiting any gathering and meeting to control the new Omicron variant of the virus.

It said all the meetings should be held online unless absolutely necessary.

It also stressed the need for screening, quarantine and isolation around the country as part of various beefed-up measures to rein in the pandemic.

On December 11, Health Minister Zahid Maleque had confirmed that the Omicron variant was detected in two female members of the Bangladesh Cricket Team.

The cricketers returned to the country recently from Zimbabwe, he added.

The Bangladesh government has recently made 14-day institutional quarantine mandatory for those returning from seven African countries as part of precautionary measures to rein in the new variant.

Bangladesh has so far reported 15,79,710 Covid cases with 28,031 deaths.