But it is no surprise that this initiative has failed to get off the ground. While several countries in the world have already set up effective and efficient testing methods at their airports, our government seems to be falling behind for no apparent reason.
Airport authorities have claimed that this has happened due to inadequate manpower and space to make the initiative feasible. While it is understandable that the issue of space cannot be fixed overnight, the issue of manpower is certainly something that could have been fixed.
Moreover, this plan failed to get off the ground after it was drafted, deliberated, and approved. There is no excuse good enough to justify such an important initiative being delayed, especially in light of our other efforts to curb the pandemic.
We cannot afford to drop the ball at such an important juncture of the pandemic, at least not due to incompetence and lack of foresight.
Bangladesh suffered greatly at the start of the pandemic due to a lack of planning, but we were able to turn the situation around in less than a year. Now that Omicron is on the loose and the vaccine situation adapts to it, we need to be even more certain now regarding any and all measures we could take.
Antigen tests at airports are an absolute imperative, to that end, as newer variants are almost always imported from other nations through this channel.
All stakeholders involved in this initiative need to be onboard so that we can come up with a plan that is feasible, and we need to come up with it fast. We need to move past these hurdles to the point where they are eliminated as a point of discussion.