Passengers arriving from the United Kingdom must be institutionally quarantined for 14 days as a measure to contain the spread of the new variant of coronavirus.
The decision was taken during the weekly cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
After the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam told reporters that the flight communication between Dhaka and London will continue, however, anyone arriving from London will have to stay in the institutional quarantine for 14 days.
The government will arrange for quarantine facilities at Ashkona Hajj Camp and Uttara Diabari, but the passenger will have to bear all the expenses.
Also, the Civil Aviation Authority Bangladesh (CAAB) might arrange good hotels for quarantine if demanded by the passengers, he added.
Responding to a question, the cabinet secretary said institutional quarantine will be mandatory even if a passenger brings negative report collected a day ago.
A notification will be issued for the enforcement of the quarantine rule after a logical time of two-three days, said Secretary Khandker Anwarul.
Later in the day, a virtual meeting chaired by the cabinet secretary, decided that this move will be implemented from January 1, 2021.
Secretaries of all related ministries including the premier’s Principal Secretary Dr Ahmad Kaikaus along with the Principal Staff Officer (PSO) of the Armed Forces Division and senior CAAB officials took part in the meeting.
On December 19, the World Health Organization said it was in close contact with UK officials over a new Covid-19 virus variant.
"They'll [UK officials] continue to share info and results of their analysis & ongoing studies. We'll update the Member States & public as we learn more about the characteristics of this virus variant & any implications,” WHO said in a tweet.
According to UK scientists, the new variant of Sars-CoV-2 is 70% more transmissible than the one it generated from.
