All travellers to undergo coronavirus screening test

The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has said all inbound travellers arriving at the airports and other ports will have to undergo screening test to prevent coronavirus.

Prof Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora, the director of IEDCR today came up with the remark at a press briefing in the capital.

"Previously, only China returnees have been tested at the airport but now the range has been extended to prevent coronavirus outbreak," she said.

A total of 8484 passengers returned from the coronavirus-struck country China have been screened at the airport till now, she said.

All the Bangladeshis who returned from China are now in good health at the Ashkona Hajj Camp, she confirmed.

On, February 1, a charter flight of Biman Bangladesh arrived at Dhaka airport carrying 316 Bangladeshis where eight of them were found having high body temperature after initial screening at the airport.

The coronavirus that believed to have originated late last year in a seafood market in China's Wuhan city which has spread to Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai, as well as the United States, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Australia, France, Canada and India.

Across mainland China, there were 3,399 new confirmed infections on Friday, bringing the total accumulated number so far to 34,546, the country's National Health Commission said on Saturday.

The death toll had reached 722 as of the end of Friday, up by 86 from the previous day.