Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today (Thursday) urged the friendly countries and development partners to join hands in executing the Delta Plan-2100, saying her government has been implementing the plan to ensure a better and improved life for the future generations.   "To implement the Delta Plan, cooperation or participation of all at home and abroad -- our friendly countries or development partners -- are solely needed in every field of knowledge, technology and exchange of experiences, starting from financing," she said.   The Prime Minister said this while opening a two-day event titled "Bangladesh Delta Plan-2100 International Conference: Issues and Challenge of Implementation", at a city hotel, joining virtually from her official Ganabhaban residence in the capital. The policy makers, researchers, teachers, development activists and development partners from home and abroad are attending the event.   Describing the Delta Plan as a techno-economic master plan based on information technology and knowledge, the Prime Minister said its implementation requires around 2.5 percent of the GDP by 2025. Mentioning that Bangladesh is a delta having 700 rivers and a vast low land area, she said, "We have to build it in such a way so our future generations can live beautifully. We are taking measures in this regard". She said that despite Bangladesh has no contribution to climate change, it is one of the worst climate affected countries.   "We're taking various short, mid and long term measures keeping in mind the impact of climate change and we're advancing with a far-sighted plan to protect Bangladesh for future generations," she said.   The Prime Minister said they're taking measures in such a planned way that the development of Bangladesh could be sustainable and its economy would further be cemented. Sheikh Hasina said her government has undertaken the Delta Plan-2100 considering 100 years on how Bangladesh would advance towards development and prosperity during the period as it is a disaster prone country.   "Bangladesh has to face floods, droughts, tidal surges, cyclones, river erosion, salinity and landslides at regular intervals due to the impact of climate change," she said.   She also said her government is implementing various programmes to ensure food security, accommodation, employment generation, healthcare services and others to protect the lives of the masses.   It is necessary to ensure nutrition alongside food security, she said.   The premier reiterated that Bangladesh is advancing and would definitely further ahead in the days to come. She said they proved Bangladesh's advancement running the country's economy and smoothing people's lives and livelihoods whereas the world economy is stalled due to the triple blow of the Covid-19 pandemic, natural disasters and Russia-Ukraine war.   "The world is facing an economic meltdown for Covid-19 pandemic and the war. Despite the fact, we're trying that the people of the country don't have to face any misery," she said.     She told the august gathering that her government has been offering stimulus packages to keep running the country's economy and the lives and livelihoods of the people.   "We have been able to keep running the country's economy by giving stimulus packages," she said.   Due to the government's timely measures, the per capita income of Bangladesh has increased to 2824 US dollars and the country has achieved 7.25 percent growth in the GDP despite the double blow, she said.   The Prime Minister said her government has reached electricity to every house and broadband internet to every village and launched a satellite to the orbit which makes Bangladesh a digital one.   "We have been able to keep rolling the wheels of the country's economy using the digital system and for which we're advancing forward," she said.   Sheikh Hasina said her government has executed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) successfully and is working to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.   "We have incorporated the SDGs in our eighth five year plan to achieve it," she added.   The Prime Minister hoped that the Dhaka's Delta Conference will discuss the pragmatic measures which are necessary to implement the Delta Plan-2100.   "This discussion will help Bangladesh in executing the Delta Plan-2100,"she said, and hoped for every success of the conference.   The premier said her government is building Bangladesh following the footprints of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, adding, "We're developing the country as Bangabandhu's dream."   Bangabandhu had formed the Joint River Commission in November 1972 for development of flood control, drainage and irrigation systems alongside rebuilding a war ravaged country, she said.   The Prime Minister said Bangabandhu had enacted a maritime boundary act in 1974 which the United Nations did in 1981, mainly to resolve maritime boundary related issues with the neighbouring countries.   Following the footsteps of the Father of the Nation, she said her government has achieved huge maritime areas winning legal battles with neighbouring India and Myanmar maintaining friendly relations.   No other governments including the BNP and Jamaat alliance took any measure to this end, she said.   Assuming office after 21 years, the Prime Minister said they had inked the 30 years Ganges Treaty with India in 1996.   The General Economics Division of the Bangladesh Planning Commission and Embassy of the Netherlands in Bangladesh are jointly arranging the conference.   Agriculture Minister Dr Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, State Minister for Water Resources Zaheed Farooque, State Minister for Planning Dr Shamsul Alam and Dutch Ambassador to Bangladesh Anne Gerard van Leeuwen also spoke at the function. Source: BSS AH

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today (Monday) sought support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to implement the Delta Plan-2100, saying, "It is very important for Bangladesh." The premier made the request when Vice President of ADB (Operations-1) Shixin Chen paid a courtesy call on her at her official Ganabhaban residence Ganabhaban this morning. PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told a media briefing after the meeting. The Prime Minister also sought ADB support to foster regional cooperation particularly in the areas of connectivity, trade and energy cooperation during the meeting. The ADB vice president assured of being with Bangladesh in its development efforts. "We have strong ties with Bangladesh and ADB will be with Bangladesh and continue to give support to both rural and urban development," he said. The ADB vice president commended the dynamic leadership of Sheikh Hasina to keep rolling the wheels of Bangladesh's economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic. "Bangladesh has been able to keep running the country's economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic due to the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina," he said. He also said his organisation expected that Bangladesh may achieve 7 percent growth in the GDP. Shixin Chen has praised the overall development of Bangladesh, saying, "Bangladesh is now going through a transitional period (due to its graduation as a developing nation) which is usually critical. But Bangladesh is doing well." Sheikh Hasina said the Covid-19 situation is now under control in Bangladesh and the countrymen have celebrated the holy Eid-ul-Fitr freely this time after two years. The premier highly appreciated the cooperation of the ADB during the pandemic period. About transition period due to Bangladesh's graduation as a developing nation, she said the government has undertaken various programmes to face the situation. Spelling out her government's different development programmes, she said that the hundred percent people of the country have been brought under electricity coverage. Sheikh Hasina said the government is now providing homes with lands to the homeless and landless people of the country aiming to give them an improved and better life. The Prime Minister said her government has taken programmes to produce more food replying to ADB vice president's projection that the world may face food shortage due to the Russia-Ukraine war. Sheikh Hasina said that the ICT sector of the country is developing. Regarding the regional connectivity for development, she said Bangladesh has opened the door for improving connectivity.  In this connection, she said the routes, those were shut after 1965 war, are being reopened. The premier sought deployment of Bangladesh senior officials in the top management and administration of ADB to maintain regional balance in recruitment. The ADB vice president said that Bangladesh has set one of the best examples to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic situation. Bangladesh has achieved huge development in the agriculture sector, he also said. The economic zones, which are being set up across Bangladesh, will meet the demands of domestic and international markets, he hoped. He expressed ADB's interest to help Bangladesh in the social protection programmes. Ambassador at large M Ziauddin, Principal Secretary Dr Ahmad Kaikaus, Economic Relations Department (ERD) Secretary Fatima Yasmin, ADB’s Deputy Director General (South Asian Department) Manmohan Parkash and its Country Director Edimon Ginting were present at the meeting. Source: BSS AH

The South African Omicron variant is gradually taking the place of Delta variant of Covid-19 across the country.      In a health bulletin today (Jan 23), Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) spokesperson Prof Dr Nazmul Islam said 73 percent of people detected with the  Omicron variant of Covid-19 showed symptom of runny nose while 68 percent have headache, 64 percent have fatigue, and 60 percent have sneezing.   Sixty percent of the patients showed symptom of sore throat and 44 percent have cough, he added. Source: BSS AH

Johnson and Johnson's single-shot Covid-19 vaccine is effective against the highly contagious Delta variant, with an immune response lasting at least eight months, the company said Thursday. The antibodies and immune system cells in the blood of eight people vaccinated with the J&J jab effectively neutralized the Delta strain, which was first identified in India, researchers found. A second study with 20 vaccinated patients at Boston's Beth Israel Medical Center had similar results. The data was sent to bioRxiv, a free online site for unpublished scientific preprints where authors "are able to make their findings immediately available to the scientific community and receive feedback on draft manuscripts before they are submitted to journals," according to the site. "We believe that our vaccine offers durable protection against COVID-19 and elicits neutralizing activity against the Delta variant," said Paul Stoffels, J&J's chief scientific officer, in a company statement. Mathai Mammen, head of Janssen Research & Development at Johnson & Johnson, said that data "for the eight months studied so far" shows that J&J's single-shot vaccine "generates a strong neutralizing antibody response that does not wane; rather, we observe an improvement over time." The Delta variant tore through in India in April and May and has since spread around the world. A report by the European Union's disease control agency ECDC estimated the more contagious strain could account for 90 percent of new cases in the EU by the end of August. Source: AFP/BSS AH

The Delta variant of COVID-19, identified in at least 85 countries, is the “most transmissible” of the variants identified so far and is spreading rapidly among unvaccinated populations, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned.       "I know that globally there is currently a lot of concern about the Delta variant, and the WHO is concerned about it too,” Director-General Ghebreyesus said at a WHO press briefing on Friday.         The Delta variant was first identified in India.        “Delta is the most transmissible of the variants identified so far, has been identified in at least 85 countries, and is spreading rapidly among unvaccinated populations,” he said in Geneva.  He noted with concern that as some countries ease public health and social measures, “we are starting to see increases in transmission around the world.         “More cases means more hospitalisations, further stretching health workers and health systems, which increases the risk of death,” he said.      While pointing out that new COVID-19 variants are expected and will continue to be reported, “that's what viruses do, they evolve - but we can prevent the emergence of variants by preventing transmission.”    In a strong warning, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 Technical Lead at the WHO said the Delta variant is a “dangerous" virus and is more transmissible than the Alpha variant, which was itself extremely transmissible across Europe and any country that it entered.   “The Delta variant is even more transmissible,” she said, adding that the WHO is seeing trajectories of incidents that are almost “vertical" in a number of countries around the world.          Many European countries are witnessing a decline in cases but there are a lot of events happening across the region, including large sporting or religious events “or even backyard barbecues.”         “All of these actions have consequences and the Delta variant is spreading readily among people who are unvaccinated,” Kerkhove said.   While some countries have high percentages of people who are vaccinated, yet the entire population of those nations is not yet vaccinated and many people have not received their second dose or the full course of dose of the COVID-19 vaccines, she said.     Kerkhove underlined that COVID-19 vaccines are "incredibly effective” at preventing severe disease and death, including against the Delta variant.       “The virus will continue to evolve. And right now our public health and social measures work, our vaccines work,” the diagnostics work and the therapeutics work.  “But there may be a time where this virus evolves and these countermeasures don't. So we need some kind of movement to pull ourselves together to drive transmission down and keep it down,” she said.         Kerkhove warned that events that are large scale and see huge crowds “will have consequences. We are already starting to see some consequences of these events with increasing transmission again.  The Delta variant will make that epidemic curve exponential,” she warned.    She urged people to keep themselves safe and make decisions individually about what they need to do every day.  "There's a lot that all of us want to be doing, but there's not a lot that we need to be doing right now,” she said.     “It's not for the next couple of months... that we need to be thinking about this. We need to be thinking about it right now, because every single decision that we make, leaders make has consequences, good and bad."          The WHO chief said it's “quite simple” that more transmission means more variants and less transmission means fewer variants.    “That makes it even more urgent that we use all the tools at our disposal to prevent transmission: the tailored and consistent use of public health and social measures, in combination with equitable vaccination,” Ghebreyesus said.   He said this is the reason why WHO has been saying for at least a year that vaccines must be distributed equitably, to protect health workers and the most vulnerable.   This week, WHO had said that the Delta variant, the significantly more transmissible variant of COVID-19, continues to be detected in new countries around the world.    The COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update released on June 22 by WHO said that globally, the variant Alpha has been reported in 170 countries, territories or areas, Beta in 119 countries, Gamma in 71 countries and Delta in 85 countries.    “Delta, now reported in 85 countries globally, continues to be reported in new countries across all WHO Regions, 11 of which were newly reported in the past two weeks,” the update said.        WHO said the four current Variants of Concern being monitored closely – Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta - are widespread and have been detected in all WHO regions. “The Delta variant is significantly more transmissible than Alpha variant, and is expected to become a dominant lineage if current trends continue.”  Source: PTI/BSS AH

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today (Wednesday) said the “Delta Plan-2100” would ensure the country’s economic growth, water and food security as well as environmental stability in the long run overcoming various challenges, especially adverse impact of climate changes. “Vision of the Delta Plan-2100 is to build a prosperous Bangladesh through adopting compact, comprehensive and effective strategies befitting with the changes of time,” she said. The Premier made the remarks in the Jatiya Sangsad while replying to a tabled question from the opposition lawmaker Md. Mashiur Rahman Ranga of Rangpur-1. Mentioning this present Awami League government as the government of country’s development, she said the 100-year long Delta Plan has been prepared for the country’s long term and sustainable development, which also focused on building the country as a prosperous one within 2041. Sheikh Hasina said the Delta Plan-2100 would be used for river dredging, river navigability, land raise and cultivation, housing, agriculture and industrialization etc. She said the Delta Plan-2100, which approved by the National Economic Council (NEC) on September 4, 2018, has been framed was with three national goals in higher level and six specific goals related to the delta. The higher level three goals are to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030, attain the status of a higher-middle-income nation by 2030 and a prosperous nation by 2041, she added. The Prime Minister said a high level committee named “Delta Governance Council” has already been formed to provide political decision and direction for its overall implementation. She went on saying the Delta Plan-2100 would be implemented through 17 five year plans, along with 80 projects to be implemented by 2030 involving an estimated cost of Taka 2,978 billion which is 2.5 percent of the country’s GDP. Sheikh Hasina said the process of formulating a policy related to Delta Fund Structure and its operation is under way. Source: BSS AH

After devastating fire at FR Tower at Banani and Gulshan DNCC kitchen market another fire broke out on the fourth floor of the Delta Life Insurance building at Gulshan-2 in the capital. Local and Fire Service sources said that the fire broke out at around 3:45 pm on Saturday. Duty Officer of Fire Service control room Mizanur Rahman confirmed the information to Rtv online and said that after getting the information two units of Fire Service Department brought the fire under control within half an hour effort. Engineer of the building Arif Hossain said, a bulb of a store room on the third floor suddenly burst. It is being thought that the fire originated from there. We managed to douse the fire with our own management. There are all types of arrangements to control the fire in our building. AH