COVID-19: Bangladesh To Impose Week-Long Air Travel Ban

Bangladesh is planning to enforce a nationwide general holiday on April 14 to contain the cases of coronavirus as the country reported 5,819 new patients of COVD-19 in the last 24 hours, including former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, a senior health official said on Sunday.

All international passenger flights to and from Bangladesh will remain suspended from April 14 to 20, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) said on Sunday.

More than 500 flights will be cancelled because of the ban, said the CAAB’s Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman.

Domestic passenger flights and chartered helicopter flights are included in the suspension, while some exceptions may be made for medical evacuations, humanitarian relief and cargo flights, the aviation authority said.

The decision to execute the nationwide holiday came as the country also witnessed 78 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours. “There are plans to enforce a nationwide general holiday to contain the infection spike from April 14, tightening an existing lockdown,” the senior health official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said. He said restrictions under the general holiday is being worked out.

A surge in COVID-19 cases since March prompted the government to enforce a nine-day nationwide shutdown until Tuesday, to be followed by yet another seven-day lockdown from Wednesday to slow the spread of the virus.

The authorities imposed a ban on air passengers from Europe and 12 other countries on April 3. Passenger flight operations on domestic routes were suspended on April 5.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Bangladesh has so far reached to 6,84,756 cases with 5,819 new cases in the last 24 hours.