Covid-19 negative certificate mandatory to enter Bangladesh

Presenting a negative Covid-19 certificate is mandatory for any incoming passengers to Bangladesh starting from today. No airlines will issue boarding passes to passengers without the negative report.

Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) yesterday issued a circular in this regard with effect from December 5 to combat the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Although CAAB earlier on several occasions asked passengers arriving from abroad to carry Covid-19 certificate, there was some reluctance by them, sources in CAAB said.

Those who didn't have the certificate, were sent for institutional quarantine for 14 days at Ashkona Hajj Camp or Diabari in the capital. 

Recently the number of incoming passengers without a negative test report has increased.

In November alone, over 4,000 passengers arrived without Covid-19 negative certificates. Therefore, the government made it mandatory to have such certificates.

According to the CAAB circular, anybody interested in entering Bangladesh will need a Covid-19 negative certificate issued within 72 hours prior to the flight. This certificate has been made mandatory under the new guidelines of CAAB.

Almost every day, passengers of different airlines are entering the country without Covid-19 negative certificate, sources at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport said. Amid this situation, the health department fears the deterioration of Covid-19 situation in the country.

According to the new CAAB guidelines, PCR tests have been made mandatory for members of diplomatic and UN missions.

Migrant workers have been asked to bring antigen or other acceptable coronavirus negative reports from the respective countries where PCR tests are not available. For children under 10, this guideline has been relaxed.

Asked, officials of Turkish and Saudi Arabian Airlines said they have informed all their station offices about the new instructions from CAAB. "Boarding cards will not be issued from December 5 without a corona-negative certificate," an official of Turkish Airlines said.

Assistant director of the health department Shahriar Sajjad, working at the Dhaka airport, said incoming passengers that show no symptoms at the airport will have to quarantine at home for 14 days.

"If passengers are found showing symptoms of Covid-19 during health screening at the airport, they will be sent to the hospital or for isolation (institutional quarantine)," he said.

Passengers coming from Bahrain, China, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the Maldives, Oman, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Turkey, the UAE and the UK must have a Covid-19 negative certificate, said the CAAB circular.

But Bangladeshi workers who are cardholders of the Bureau of Manpower Export Development, and do not have adequate facilities for coronavirus testing, will have to show an alternative health certificate -- for example, antigen test or any other acceptable Covid-19 test report.