Despite strict restrictions imposed by the authorities, various international airlines are allegedly carrying passengers to Bangladesh who do not have coronavirus negative test certificates.
The Civil Aviation Authorities Bangladesh (CAAB) is strictly monitoring all incoming passengers’ COVID-19 negative certificates while arriving in the country through its international airports from December 5.
Since then, CAAB has announced that if any airlines carried corona infected passengers or passenger without Covid-19 certificate will have to face flight suspension as well as cash penalty.
However, despite the authority's repeated warnings international airliners are not paying heed to the restrictions. Many airlines are allegedly still carrying passengers from abroad to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) without checking if they have been tested ‘negative’ for Covid-19 infection.
According to airport data, since the restriction, five corona positive passengers from different countries have been admitted to hospitals. At the same time, around 1050 passengers arrived on various flights without corona negative certificates, who were sent to the official quarantine by the airport authorities.
Around 10 flights of local and foreign airlines have allegedly flown in passengers without Covid-19 certificate. Among them, passengers of Saudi Arabian Airlines, AirAsia and Biman Bangladesh Airlines have been identified as affected by the coronavirus. Although these three airlines have been fined, carrying of passengers without certificates are not stopping.
The other airlines accused of bringing in such infected passengers are, Emirates, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Salam Air, Kuwait Airways, AirAsia, Air Arabia, Gulf Air, Maldivian Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Singapore Airlines. In the meantime, those airlines have been fined while some of them got warnings from CAAB.
Thus, if the influx of passengers from abroad without a negative certificate is not stopped, the health experts fear that the situation of Covid-19 will deteriorate again.
Leading virologist of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Dr A S M Alamgir said, "There is a strict ban on this from all over the world as there is a risk of spreading coronavirus in the country through foreign travelers, so that no one can enter the country without a corona ‘negative’ certificate. But we are not able to stop it completely despite various measures."
Hasan Mahmud Kausar, Assistant Health Officer of Shahjalal Airport said that the passengers specially coming from Saudi Arabia and Malaysia are generally found to have corona symptoms. There are continuous monitoring at the airport to reduce the threat of coronavirus spread.
Airport authorities said boarding cards are being issued from the airports of the respective countries without strict verification and selection, which they are identifying after arriving at HSIA.
Some people are talking about PCR test and coming up with another test. In such a situation, CAAB has not only fined the accused airlines, but also issued instructions to stop the flight.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines managing director and CEO, MD Mokabbir Hossain earlier told Bangladesh Post that they are applying cautionary measures so that none of the passengers can board on Biman without Covid-19 negative certificates.
HSIA Director Group Captain AHM Touhid ul Ahsan said, "We are strictly monitoring each flight after arriving.”
After imposing restriction a few carriers violated the rules, thus we finned them. Now they are implying cautionary measures while carrying passengers. But our surveillance is continuing."
