The China returnees, who were quarantined for 14 days and tested negative for the deadly coronavirus, are being released from the quarantine centre at Ashkona Hajj Camp in Dhaka.
The Health Directorate on Saturday (Feb 15) started a process to release the China returnees after carrying out their necessary health screening.
The Bangladeshis came back from China on Feb 1 amid the outbreak of the killer virus there.
“The quarantine period for China returnees at Ashkona temporary quarantine centre, has been completed. We’ve started carrying out necessary health screening,” Dr A S M Alamgir, principal scientific officer of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told local media on Saturday evening.
Some China returnees may go to their houses in the night and the others may leave the Ashokna quarantine centre on Sunday (Feb 16) morning, he added.
“All the returnees will remain under the IEDCR observation even after their release,” IEDCR Director Professor Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora told a press briefing at its office in the capital.
The IEDCR will also provide face masks and other essential materials for the China returnees, she added.
The IEDCR chief said after filling a screening form, they will get released from the quarantine centre as all of them are in good health and declared free of coronavirus after their 14-day quarantine.
“All the China returnees are now doing well,” she added.
The government has set up a temporary quarantine centre in Ashkona to keep the returnees from China under observation as the coronavirus is infectious and takes about 14 days for showing up any symptoms on the victims.
The returnees were tested on their arrival and were monitored by physicians at the camp regularly, the IEDCR sources said.
A flight of Biman Bangladesh landed in Dhaka, carrying 312 Bangladeshis, including 15 children, from the coronavirus-struck Wuhan city of China on Feb 1.
Later, the passengers were taken to Hajj camp in Ashkona, where they were quarantined.
Coronavirus has so far spread to 30 countries. The viral outbreak that began in China has so far infected more than 69,000 people globally and killed at least 1,600 others, media reports said.
