Screening of passengers of all flights started at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka as coronavirus cases were detected in more than two dozens of countries including China.
“Passengers from different countries have started filling up health cards and are being fully screened at the airport before their departure,” said Prof Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) on Saturday.
“We’ve taken decision of screening all passengers as people of many countries arebeing detected with coronavirus,” she said.
Prof Dr Flora also said that IEDCR sent a letter to the airport authorities in this regard on Thursday and the process began on Friday.
About screening all passengers at the airport, Dr Shahriar Sazzad, assistant director of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) told UNB that they have started providing declaration form, health information card and passenger locator form among the passengers.
“All passengers will be fully screened as people from different countries are entering the country by 13 flights including four flights from China,” he added.
“We’ll have a meeting with all the airlines in this regard tomorrow (Sunday),” he added.
Since January 21, they were screening passengers of four flights from China only, he added.
Meanwhile, IEDCR has set up four hotline numbers for creating awareness among people about novel coronavirus.
The hotline numbers are: 01937110011, 01937000011, 01927711784 and 01927711785.
Earlier, on January 21, the authorities at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital and Shah Amanat International Airport in Chattogram startedscreening passengers coming from China following the outbreak of coronavirus.
The novel coronavirus, which originated from China’s Hubei province, has infected more than 34,546 people globally and claimed 722 lives till Saturday, according to AP.
Since the first cases were reported, the virus has spread to over twenty five countries.
The Chinese government on Saturday said another 3,399 people had been diagnosed over the last 24 hours, reversing two days of declines.