At least nine Covid-19 patients have arrived in Bangladesh in the last month from Middle Eastern countries hiding their medical certificate on board.
When asked for their Covid-19 certificate at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, they said they had one.
However, after they were informed that they would be allowed to return home if they only showed a certificate or were sent to a 14-day institutional quarantine, they took out their certificate and admitted that they were infected.
The airport government said passengers in poor health were from Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar.
“The coronavirus certificate is not mandatory for passengers arriving in Bangladesh and others deserved it,” AHM Group Captain AHM Touhid-ul-Ahsan, director of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, told the Daily Star yesterday.
On 14 September he held an emergency with airline representatives in this regard.
The Bangladesh Civil Aviation Authority has already informed the airlines involved that they are transporting patients with Covid-19.
“We asked them for a strict surveillance formula to make sure that patients who are positive for Covid-19 travel,” Tauhid said.
Of the patients, five flew in Saudia, two on Qatar Airways, one on Bangaldesh Biman and one on SalamAir.
Two of them landed in Dhaka on 24 and 26 August, the others arrived on 4, 6, 7, 14 and 17 September.
The Civil Aviation Authority said all patients sent and admitted to Kurmitola General Hospital after arriving in Dhaka.
Deputy Air District Mafidur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Civil Aviation Authority, told the Daily Star that the airlines involved had been notified and that explanations had been requested.
“If the reaction is satisfactory, we will tell the civil aviation authority involved that airlines have violated fitness regulations and ask them to take action,” he said.
International flights were long suspended due to the pandemic and resumed on a stopover on 16 June.
The Civil Aviation Authority has also issued a fitness circular before flights resume.
Expats from other countries began entering the country once the coronavirus began spreading in China in late December.
Bangladesh took a step by putting 312 of its citizens, who were brought back from China’s Wuhan Province, to a 14-day quarantine at Ashkona camp in Dhaka on 1 February.
But returnees were then allowed to quarantine at home, at the risk of spreading the infection to Bangladesh.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Bangladesh rose to 25th on Monday, beating China on the list of countries with the highest number of patients connected to Covid-19.
With the new instances, the total number of instances shown increased to 3,44,264, the fifteenth highest in the world, according to the worldometer. info.