ZCZC
BSS-34
COVID-19-UK-RETURNEES-QUARANTINE
7-day quarantine made mandatory for UK returnees: Maleque
DHAKA, Dec 23, 2020 (BSS) – Health Minister Zahid Maleque today said the government has made mandatory seven-day quarantine for the passengers, who are returning to Bangladesh from the United Kingdom.
“Passengers returning to Bangladesh from the UK will have to stay in seven-day quarantine. They will be released after COVID-19 test in order to stop spread of the deadly virus,” he said while inaugurating a mobile laboratory for Covid-19 testing at the Ashkona Hajj camp in the city.
Heads of different relevant organizations, physicians and officials, among others, were present at the function with Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam in the chair.
Maleque said the government has taken the decision of seven-day quarantine to control coronavirus situation in the country, an official release said.
As COVID-19 cases were detected on March 8 this year, the government started coronavirus tests to halt the transmission of the fatal disease, he added.
There was only one PCR lab in the country, the minister said at present, the country has 118 PCR labs. “When almost the entire world is struggling to control coronavirus situation, Bangladesh has been able to contain the outbreak of the deadly virus,” Maleque said.
He said after the detection of coronavirus cases in Bangladesh, the government has taken massive initiatives including increasing financial allocation to halt the outbreak of the deadly virus. “We have recruited physicians, nurses, medical technologists in an urgent basis to improve healthcare system in the country… alongside recruitment of adequate number of manpower, the government installed modern and updated version of equipment in COVID-19 dedicated hospitals to deal with the pandemic,” he added.
Maleque said, “We have introduced multiple testing facilities including antigen and geneXpart machine as part of our efforts to widen testing capacity to contain the killer virus.”
There are 163 labs, including rapid antigen and geneXpart, in the country according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). A total of 31,22,426 samples of suspected coronavirus cases have so far been tested since the detection of the first COVID-19 cases in the country, it added.
BSS/PR/MMR/ARS/1902 hrs