The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) has suspended flights from Nepal after placing it on Group A category for travelling restrictions to stop the spread of new variants of coronavirus in the country.
“In order to reduce the risk of fur4ther spreading of coronavirus from the increasingly affected friendly countries, it has been decided to place Nepal in the list of Group A of the circular under reference. This circular will be effective from May 10 2021 until further notice and all other instructions in the circular under reference will apply in this regard,” a notice said on Sunday.
Until this decision, Nepal was in the Group C category which only required incoming passengers from these countries of origin will have to complete 14-day strict home quarantine.
Earlier on May 1, CAAB issued a circular imposing special conditions on travel to 38 countries, considering the risk of Covid-19 transmission.
According to the circular, countries have been categorized under three groups -- A, B and C -- for transporting passengers.
For countries under Group A, no incoming (as the point of origin) or outgoing passengers will be allowed to and from Bangladesh.
Only Bangladeshi expatriates/citizens on a visit (not residing) to these countries in the last 15 days will be allowed to travel to Dhaka provided that they have special approval or authorization from Bangladesh authorities.
On arrival, they will complete a mandatory 14-day institutional quarantine at a government nominated hotel at their own expense, the circular said.
It also made mandatory for all incoming and outgoing passengers, except for children below the age of 10, to possess a PCR-based Covid-19 negative certificate.
Nepal has been struggling to contain a massive surge of Covid-19 cases as infections spill over from neighbouring India's deadly second wave.
In the last three weeks, Nepal's daily case trajectory has shot up with two out of five people tested now returning positive. On Friday, Nepal reported 9,023 cases, the highest single day increase.
More than 3,500 people have died since the pandemic began, 400 of them in the last two weeks alone, according to official figures.