The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control, and Research (IEDCR), yesterday said the novel coronavirus has not infected anyone in Bangladesh until now and there is no need for public alarm.
IEDCR took four samples from Wuhan returnees in the last 24 hours and none of them tested positive, IEDCR Director Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora said in a press conference at the IEDCR auditorium in Dhaka.
She said that currently 298 of the returnees from China’s Wuhan have been kept under observation at the Ashkona Haji Camp, 11 at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH), and three at Kurmitola General Hospital, but none of them have shown any symptoms of having the coronavirus.
Although not all directives of the World Health Organization (WHO) on the matter can be implemented due to technical difficulties, most of the necessary ones are being followed, she said.
She said: “We are maintaining a distance of at least one metre between all returnees, and we are making sure they use face masks and wash their hands frequently.”
People who are kept at the Hajj camp have no symptoms of coronavirus and therefore do not need to worry about person to person transmission.
“Already, a 100 bed isolation ward has been set up at the Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital in Uttara, in preparation to tackle the situation if any patients are found affected by the coronavirus in the future,” Sabrina added.
According to WHO, Thailand, Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka have patients with coronavirus in Southeast Asia.
Dr Meerjady said land port screening would intensify if the virus spreads on a large scale in neighboring countries like India or Myanmar.
DGHS Director (disease control) Dr Shahnila Ferdousi told the press that all the BRTC buses that transported Wuhan returnees were sterilized immediately after the returnees were dropped off at the camp.
‘Do not believe everything on social media’
The health experts at the press briefing urged Bangladeshis not to believe everything on social media.
They said they cannot police social media, but rumours on social media have to stop as it is creating panic among people and disseminating false information.
“No treatment has been discovered to prevent coronavirus thus far. If any social media post says there is a cure to coronavirus, it is baseless,” said Meerjady.
Coronavirus cannot spread if people buy products imported from China, said Dr ASM Alamgir. He added that according to WHO, the coronavirus does not survive long on objects.
