With the new cases, the tally of infections from the fast-spreading strain has doubled to 20 in the space of a month, reports bdnews24.

All the infected patients are residents of Dhaka city.

Their samples were collected between Dec 14 and Jan 4 for genome sequencing by International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh and the Institute of Developing Science And Health Initiative. They were later submitted to GISAID, reported the news portal.

Among the latest cases, seven are women aged between 18 and 53. Two of the men are in their 60s, bdnews24 reported.