All 95 Europe returnees released after health check-ups
On-duty doctors at the Ashkona Hajj Camp quarantine centre have asked them to stay in self-quarantine
All 95 Bangladeshi expatriates, who returned from European countries including Italy on Monday night, have been released after health check-ups at the Ashkona Hajj Camp quarantine centre in Dhaka.
However, doctors on duty in the quarantine centre have asked them to stay in self-quarantine for 14 days.
"They were found to have no symptoms of the coronavirus," said Professor Dr Shah Nila Ferdousi, director (disease control) at the Directorate General of Health Services.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
"We have discharged them, but asked them to stay in self-quarantine. We have already sent their list to the civil surgeons of their respective districts," she added.
Of the total returnees, 68 came back from Italy and 27 from other European countries, said Shahriar Sazzad, health officer-in-charge of the Health Centre at the Hazrat Shahajalal International Airport.
Saifur Rahman, an assistant sub-inspector of the Airport police station put on duty in front of the hajj camp, said all the returnees were released after 10pm on Monday.
"Now the camp is empty."
A Qatar Airways flight, carrying these 95 passengers from Europe, landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Monday evening, despite a ban imposed by the government on incoming flights from all European countries except the United Kingdom.
Air Vice Marshall M Mafidur Rahman, chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, said the foreign ministry approved the flight on humanitarian grounds.
Earlier in the day, airport Director AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan said all passengers coming from European countries henceforth would be sent back after their arrival.
On March 14, the government suspended on-arrival visas for all countries and banned flights carrying passengers from all European countries, except the UK, for two weeks in an effort to stop the coronavirus from spreading in Bangladesh.
Around 400 Italy returnees have been brought into the Ashkona Hajj Camp in the last four days. Of them, 42 were sent to the Meghdubi quarantine camp in Gazipur while others were released for self-quarantine.
In the first week of February, 312 Bangladeshi returnees from China were brought to the camp for quarantine.
