DHAKA, – Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control & Research (IEDCR) said from now on all the passengers arriving through different ports in the country would be screened thoroughly with a view to preventing deadly coronavirus from spreading that has created a global health emergency.
“From now on, we will screen all the passengers arriving from all the countries across the globe as the virus has so far spread in 25 countries. So, as a further precaution, from now on we will screen all inbound passengers regardless of their nationalities,” IEDCR Director Meerjady Sabrina Flora told newsmen at a briefing at its office today.
Dr Flora also urged people not to be panicked over the situation, but to stay alert.
IEDCR, country’s state-run disease monitoring wing, has screened a total of 8,396 China returnees until February 7 from January 21, 2020, and all of them are safe.
The disease monitoring wing, already running four hotline numbers -01937110011, 01937000011, 01927711784 and 01927711785 — to solve any type of confusion about the virus and creating awareness among people of the disease.
“We have so far received a total of 1,227 calls on those hotline numbers of which, 139 were made in February 7. Of the total number of calls, 900 were made regarding coronavirus,” Dr Flora said.
The IEDCR official further said 47 people have visited its office to take service regarding suspicion of coronavirus.
“We have diagnosed samples from a total of 53 suspects, of which samples from three were diagnosed yesterday,” the IEDCR chief added.
IEDCR official urged people to frequently wash their hands and not to touch their noses, eyes and faces with dirty hands to prevent the spread of the virus.
A total of 722 deaths were recorded in China, including one American. A Japanese man also died with symptoms consistent with the virus.
The number of confirmed cases in China stands at 34,546. Outside China, 270 cases have been confirmed in 25 countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with two fatalities – one in Hong Kong and another in the Philippines.
