To ensure their isolation after work, the government has arranged hotel facilities as special accomodation for doctors, nurses and other health workers and medical staff, who are on the frontline in the battle against Covid-19.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has already prepared a requisition to book rooms in hotels for 530 doctors, nurses and other health workers.
“Doctors, nurses and health workers who are serving Covid-19 patients will get hotel facilities to ensure they are isolated,” said Sherajul Islam, additional secretary (hospitals) of the Health Service Division.
"It is sort of a quarantine facility so that the family members of the doctors and nurses are safe," he said.
“We are yet to receive the final list of hotels. Once we get that, we will make the necessary payments,” he added.
Physicians serving patients of Covid-19 at different hospitals in Dhaka, including, Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital, Kurmitola General Hospital, Sheikh Hasina Gastroliver Institute and Hospital, Institute of Child and Mother Health (ICMH), Dhaka Mohanagar General Hospital and Bangladesh Railway General Hospital, Kamalapur, will be provided with accommodation.
The tentative list of hotels includes Dhaka Regency Hotel and Resort, Hotel Abakash, Hotel Zakaria, Hotel Renaissance, Radisson Blu Dhaka Water Garden, Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka, Pacific Lake View Hotel and Resort, Le Méridien Dhaka, Best Western Plus Maple Leaf, Hotel Milina, Grand Prince Hotel, Hotel Shyamoli, Hotel Dreamland, Hotel Razmoni Ishakha, FARS Hotel, Hotel 71, Hotel Sagarika, Hotel Grand Circle Inn and Hotel Shalimar.
The hotels were selected on the basis of the distance from the hospitals where the doctors and other health-related personnel will work.
However, physicians and nurses at Dhaka's Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital and Kurmitola General Hospital have already started staying at different hotels in Uttara and Dhaka airport road from last week.
On Sunday, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) issued a letter to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in this regard.
The letter, signed by DGHS Director (Hospital) Dr Md Aminul Hasan, requested the secretary at Health Services Division of the ministry to take necessary steps.
Since several doctors and nurses have already contracted Covid-19, a severely acute respiratory illness caused by a new strain of coronavirus, the government has taken the hotel initiative, aiming to avoid endangering the healthcare professionals' families when they return home from work, officials at the ministry said.
In the letter, the DGHS director mentioned a list of 19 hotels incorporating a demand for 580 rooms for physicians, nurses and others who are fighting against the deadly virus on the frontline.
Physicians, nurses and medical workers treating coronavirus patients at hospitals across Bangladesh have been asked to stay at nearby hotels while they are on duty instead of returning home, they added.
The move follows the example of other countries, including China and India, as a preventive measure to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
As of Tuesday, Bangladesh has so far recorded 46 deaths and 1,012 cases from Covid-19, a pandemic announced by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The fast spreading coronavirus, which was first reported in China's Wuhan, has claimed 121,710 lives and infected 1,946,781 people across the world till 5:10pm on Tuesday, according to worldometer.
As many as 458,987 people have recovered from Covid-19, a disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus, which has spread to 210 countries and territories across the planet.
