Chattogram airport gets thermal scanner, none at seaport

Even after Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases, the seaport in Chattogram is yet to get any thermal scanner as part of preventive measures to stop further spread of the virus in the country.

However, a thermal scanner was being set up at Shah Amanat International Airport in the port city in the afternoon. “We have procured a thermal scanner and it is being installed,” the airport’s assistant health official Md Sharif told Prothom Alo.

Thermal scanners are used to detect people with high temperature that could be caused by coronavirus but they cannot detect people with coronavirus who do not have a high temperature. People who have been infected but are still in their incubation phase – which can be between two and 14 days – are often missed.

Shah Amanat International Airport’s lone thermal scanner, installed in 2015, went out of order seven months ago while the Chattogram Seaport does not have any scanner.

Quoting airport sources news agency UNB reports five doctors were taking temperatures of about 1,500 passengers daily with only five hand-held thermometer guns. Passengers say the measures are insufficient to stop the spread of the virus from entering the country.

District civil surgeon Sheikh Fazle Rabbi told Prothom Alo that they were supposed to get two scanners for the Chattogram seaport and airport. “We’ve got one scanner for the airport as it has been given priority. Another one for the seaport will be provided later,” he added.

Sheikh Fazle Rabbi further said an emergency meeting was held with directors of government hospitals at Chattogram Medical College Hospital around 9:00am. Decisions were made to increase capacity of government hospital isolation units and outdoor services, he added.

PH Amin School in Halishahar and CDA Public School in the city were also visited as part of preparations for quarantine facilities, he said.

Health minister Zahid Maleque said the government is fully ready to tackle the situation. “Medical teams have been deployed at airports and land ports. Those coming from abroad are undergoing tests. The government is alert about the situation,” he said in an interview with news agency UNB.

Two Bangladeshis, who recently returned from Italy, were tested positive for COVID-19. The third infected person is a family member of one of the returnees.

Mahmud Akhter, acting manager of Chattogram airport, said there has been no direct flight from China but they are monitoring Chinese flights arriving here via Thailand, Singapore and Japan.

“An isolation unit has been opened at the port and the number of physicians has been increased,” he added.

Meanwhile, a source at the country’s largest seaport said it has no thermal scanner. The port authorities have been observing people in ships in 14-day quarantine at sea before permitting them to enter the port, UNB report said.

Death toll from coronavirus outbreak, which was first reported in China last year, climbed to over 4,000 while it has infected over 110,000 people globally but a major portion of the infected recovered.