63 returnees scheduled to fly for UAE on Tuesday midnight on trial basis

The much-awaited RT-PCR Covid-19 testing of outbound passengers at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport may begin Tuesday. 

An Emirates flight to Dubai is scheduled to depart from the airport on trial basis at 1:40am.

Executive Director of Dhaka airport Group Captain AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan, told journalists, " An EK585 flight will fly from the airport to the United Arab Emirates carrying 63 passengers. Their tickets are confirmed and if they test negative for Covid-19, they will be allowed to depart," he said, adding that the flight was on trial basis and not a regular one.

He also said that 34 others have confirmed their tickets for another flight (EK587) on Tuesday but more passengers are expected.

Around 40,000 expatriates, who came home on vacation, have been unable to return to the UAE as the Gulf country in August made pre-flight Covid testing mandatory for inbound passengers.                   

In an announcement, the country said that foreign passengers must do a PCR-test for Covid-19 a maximum of six hours before their flight.

The lack of such testing facilities in the country's international airports, however, meant many returnees were stranded in Bangladesh. 

Following that, those stranded demanded that testing facilities be quickly set up at international airports as migrant workers and professionals feared that they would lose their jobs if they failed to reach their workplaces.

On Sunday, Air-Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman, chairman at the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), confirmed that the tests would begin from Tuesday.   

Dr Shahriar Sajjad, health officer at the airport, said, "Around 100 airport staffers gave samples to the labs on a trial basis on Sunday. All of them tested Covid-19 negative."

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 6 September instructed the authorities concerned to immediately set up labs at the country's three international airports in Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet.

On 15 September, the expatriates' welfare ministry announced that they had permitted six private healthcare firms to set up Covid testing labs at Dhaka airport upon the recommendations of the health directorate.     

The six firms submitted the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) on 16 September to the UAE. But the Gulf country is yet to respond.

On 23 September, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said 12 machines would be installed in six labs that will test at least 3,500-4,000 passengers per day.

According to the health directorate, the six laboratories have been asked to prepare the test reports within three hours.

The test at the lab will cost Tk1,700-Tk2,300 per passenger, according to a ministry circular.

The samples will be collected from the passengers on the north side of the second floor of the terminal building and tested in the labs downstairs.