The Bangladesh government is in trouble over its Chinese returnees, especially those who have been brought back from the coronavirus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan.
The information was revealed at the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday.
After the meeting, cabinet secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said in his briefing that the health minister, foreign minister, aviation minister, information minister, state minister for shipping, and some medical experts discussed the effects of oronaviurus after the meeting.
The cabinet secretary said: “Currently there are 171 Bangladeshis in Wuhan. They want to come back to Bangladesh but we cannot send our planes and pilots to Wuhan right now, as the pilots and cabin crews who returned from Wuhan are not being allowed to enter other countries. Singapore has already rejected their visa applications,”
Khandker Anwarul Islam further said: “We are communicating with some Chinese chartered planes to bring back the 171 people back from China.”
The cabinet secretary also said that the Chinese government had assured Dhaka that they would not send any affected Bangladeshis.
“We were supposed to bring back 316 Bangladeshis from China. But the Chinese government did not allow four of them to leave as they had been suffering from high fever,” he added.
Cabinet secretary also that, “Aviation secretary said in the meeting that although there are four daily flights to China, only 10-12 passengers fly every day to the country (China) due to the virus. If this situation continues, the operator may shut down their flights due to lack of passengers,” quoting aviation secretary cabinet secretary told that.
Seeking anonymity, a cabinet minister told Dhaka Tribune that the government had spent almost Tk 3 crore to get them back from Wuhan ‘rescue ferry flight BG-7002’.
Another Wuhan returnee has been taken under observation
The Bangladeshi citizen who arrived in Dhaka from China on February 1 has been taken to Dhaka's Kurmitola General Hospital from Ashkona Hajj camp for observation.
The patient was taken to the hospital on Sunday night, Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Director Dr Meerjadi Sabrina Flora told Dhaka Tribune.
She said the patient had been kept under observation.
Where are the other returnees?
Of the returnees, ten were taken to two hospitals in Dhaka-- Kurmitola General Hospital and Combined Military Hospital (CMH) -- for observation as they were running fever.
Health officials ran tests on the 10 returnees in order to determine whether they have been infected with the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). After the tests, it was confirmed that none of the returnees had been infected.
The total number of deaths from the coronavirus epidemic in China rose to 361 as of Monday. The number of new confirmed infections in China rose by 2,829, bringing the total to 17,205, reports Reuters.
Update in the last 24 hours
A statement by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) noted that eight patients admitted to hospital with fever had been examined but none of them was found to be carrying coronavirus . Of the patients, seven were sent to Ashkona.
One China returnee at the quarantine centre established inside the Ashkona Hajj Camp was sent to Kurmitola General Hospital as he had been suffering from fever.
At present eight members of three families, including children, are under observation at Combined Military Hospital (CMH).
According to the IEDCR, no passengers at the airport were found infected through screening.
90 more return from China, exempted from medical tests
Another 90 students reached Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka from China on Monday morning. Upon arrival, they were allowed to go to their respective homes, without any thermal screening.
The students were allowed to go to their homes because they did not reside in Wuhan, even though the distance between Qinzhou, where the students used to reside, and the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, Wuhan, is only 1,288.3 km.
When contacted, Md Kawser, one of the returnees, told Dhaka Tribune: “We did not have to go through the screening process, as we did not reside in Wuhan."But, we had to fill in two medical forms at Dhaka airport."
"We had to move to Guangzhou from Qinzhou on January 31 and stay in a hotel there till the time we headed for the airport," added Kawser.
On January 30, WHO declared the viral outbreak as a global emergency as the death toll in China jumped to 170, with the virus reported to have spread to 31 provinces of China.
