Published in: The New Age
02 February, 2020
Seven hospitalised with different symptoms

The government on Saturday quarantined 312 Bangladeshis at hospitals in Dhaka on arrival from coronavirus epicentre Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei province in China, amid multiple screening in the last twenty hours. Upon their arrival on a special flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines on January 1, the health ministry officials at specially set up quarantine at the Hajj camp at Ashkona in Dhaka announced that none of them were contaminated or suspected of carrying the virus.

The officials, however, said eight of them were taken to Kurmitola Medical College Hospital and Combined Military Hospital as their fever levels were little higher than usual. The health services director general Abul Kalam Azad told the reporters that of the 312 Bangladeshis, 297 were adults while 12 were children and three were infants and they were in quarantine for two weeks.

He also said that seven of the passengers were moved to Kurmitola General Hospital with their average 100 degree fever but none were found to have been infected during multiple screening tests. Director general of Armed Forces Medical Services Major General physician Md Fashiur Rahman said another pregnant nurse with her husband and a kid was moved to the CMH for isolation.

Abul Kalam said they have engaged army personnel apart from the police to maintain strict law and order around the specially set up quarantine at the Hajj camp at Ashkona and were providing best services to the Bangladeshis who arrived from the Wuhan. Most of the Bangladeshis were students and PhD researchers at different universities in the Hubei province in China where their provincial government launched multiple screening tests before allowing them to get on board the plane.

At least four Bangladeshis were not allowed to travel due to their sudden attack of fever at the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport at the last moment, a foreign ministry official told New Age. The official said that 10 others who lived 400 kilometres away from Wuhan could not finally catch the flight while 20 more medical students were unwilling to return as they believed that the virus would not affect them.

The official said that at least six others could not manage their travel documents and had to stay behind. Bangladesh embassy in China so far registered 5,760 Bangladeshis living in the country.

Source: https://www.newagebd.net/article/98297/312-bangladeshis-quarantined-in-dhaka-after-arriving-from-wuhan