DHAKA, Jan 30, 2020 (BSS) – Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque today said currently no outsider is being allowed to enter the country without screening at Bangladeshi airports so that the coronavirus epidemic could not breach the country’s barrier.
“Aiming to protect the countrymen from the coronavirus epidemic, three screening machines have been set up at Dhaka airport,” he told a discussion related to raising awareness on coronavirus organized by Bangladesh Society of Medicine at Dhaka Medical College here.
Maleque said all home-bound passengers are being inspected thoroughly by the screening machines at the entry gate of the airport for identifying coronavirus-infected person.
Of the screening machines, one has been installed at VIP Entrance and another at general entry gate at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, he said, adding that one is kept stand-by.
As part of purge programme for the coronavirus, the government has taken all-out programmes within the country’s boundaries including setting up screening system at country’s land and river ports, arranging isolated cabins at Kurmitola General Hospital near airport, providing hotline numbers for emergency help and awareness guidelines on coronavirus for every passenger of flights in airport, he said.
With Bangladesh Society of Medicine Secretary General Ahmedul Kabir in the chair, the discussion was attended, among others, by Health Services Division Secretary Md Asadul Islam, Director General (DG) for Health Services Prof Abul Kalam Azad.