Dhaka, May 30 -- After analysing the data, the researchers found that the viral isolates had the highest degree of similarity (99.99 percent) with the European strain of the coronavirus, according to lead researcher Salim Khan.

Since its outbreak in China's Wuhan last year, COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, has sickened more than 5.93 million people globally and killed 365,051, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

In Bangladesh, the number of COVID-19 cases has surged past 44,000 with 610 fatalities.

Scientiests are yet to develop a proven vaccine and treatments for the disease which has showed little sign of slowing down.

"The whole genome sequencing process play a crucial role in the developme...