Bangladesh has so far found nine confirmed cases of the coronavirus variant which has been dominant in India, according to government data.
The Directorate General of Health Services on Sunday said all the patients were returnees from India.
The number may rise as the health authorities were sequencing genome of the coronavirus found in other samples, said Dr Md Nazmul Islam, a line director at the DGHS.
The original variant now dominant in India is officially known as B.1.617. It has three subtypes -- all with slightly different genetic mutations. B.1.617.2, which was found in Bangladesh, appears to be spreading more quickly than two other identified subtypes of the variant.
Viruses mutate all the time, producing different versions of themselves. Most of these mutations are insignificant -- and some may even make the virus less dangerous, but others can make it more contagious and harder to vaccinate against.
The DGHS had earlier said six cases of the variant, first detected in India, have been identified by Bangladeshi authorities, but two of these cases were of that variant, while the others were quite close to it.
Nazmul on Sunday urged all to wear masks, wash hands with soap and water or sanitiser and keep physical distancing to prevent the variant from spreading.
A double dose of COVID-19 vaccines is almost as effective against the fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus first identified in India as it is against Britain's dominant strain, English health officials said on Saturday.
The transmissibility advantage of the B.1.617.2 variant might be a little lower than first feared, a leading British epidemiologist had said earlier, reports bdnews24.com with details from Reuters.
The World Health Organization on May 11 classified the coronavirus variant B.1.617 as a variant of global concern, saying there was some available information to suggest it has an increased transmissibility.
The B.1.617 variant is the fourth variant to be designated as being of global concern and requiring heightened tracking and analysis. The others are those first detected in Britain, South Africa and Brazil.