43 more UK returnees land in Sylhet

Forty three more passengers arrive in Sylhet from the United Kingdom (UK) in a flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines on Monday amid the fear of spreading new strain of coronavirus.
Prothom Alo

Forty three more passengers have arrived in Sylhet from the United Kingdom (UK) in a flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines amid the fear of spreading new strain of coronavirus.

All passengers have been placed under the mandatory quarantine after the landing of the flight at Osmani International Airport in Sylhet on Monday noon.

The flight took off Heathrow Airport of London carrying a total of 60 passengers. Of them, 43 landed in the Sylhet airport. The remaining 17 passengers landed in the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.

Unlike many other countries, the government did not impose the travel ban between Bangladesh and UK after the British government had announced the spread of a new strain of coronavirus.

But the authorities have given directives to keep all UK returnees under the mandatory quarantine from 1 January, said the authorities of Osmani International Airport in Sylhet.

The district administration has designed several hotels for ensuring 14-day long quarantine period. All expenses of quarantine period will be borne by returnee passengers. Apart from this, there is an option to stay under the institutional quarantine of the government at Khadim BRDTI area under Sylhet suburb.

Earlier, 69 passengers, who returned from the UK to Sylhet in two phases, are staying in mandatory quarantine. After primary check-up, they were sent to the quarantine by designated transports from the airport.

At noon, Hafiz Ahmed, manager of Osmani International Airport, said, “A process is undergoing to place those 43 returnees to quarantine. Earlier, 69 UK returnees’ were sent to quarantine.”

“Only one scheduled flight leaves the UK for Sylhet on each Monday and Thursday. On the other hand, one flight in a week takes off from Sylhet for making the UK,” he added.