Full-scale Covid testing at HSIA starts Tuesday

Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) has said that the much-anticipated Covid-19 testing for UAE-bound passengers through RT-PCR laboratories at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) will start in full swing from Tuesday.

CAAB Chairman Air-Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman made the announcement while speaking to reporters after inspecting trial tests at the six newly-established RT-PCR labs at the airport on Sunday.

State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism M Mahbub Ali and Bangladesh Tourism Corporation Chairman Hannan Mia were present here.

The CAAB chairman also said that the testing of passengers through the RT-PCR lab at airport terminal-1 ground floor will be done in coordination with the ministry of overseas and expatriate welfare, foreign ministry and the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

“Six RT-PCR labs collected a total of 96 samples from HSIA officials. If the trials are successful, the DGHS will give us their approval to allow these labs to conduct tests for outbound passengers. This procedure would require at least 48 hours. Hopefully, full-scale operations will start from September 28,” M Mafidur Rahman added.

“We are trying to operate these RT-PCR labs in a coordinated manner. However, this technical issue is not in our hands. At the same time, the UAE is yet to reply to the SOPs sent to them,” he added.

According to the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, the UAE has made it mandatory for passengers from Bangladesh to depart within six hours of taking an RT-PCR test at the airport.

Earlier, DGHS Additional Director General Dr Nasima Sultana told The Business Post that all six RT-PCR laboratories at Dhaka airport were ready to conduct pre-departure Covid testing for the UAE-bound passengers.

CAAB officials said a DGHS monitoring cell and technical committee, led by Dr Sultana, inspected the technical aspects of the Covid-19 testing machines at the labs on Saturday.

The committee found everything to be in order at the laboratories after conducting a final trial, they added.

On Wednesday evening, 46 Bangladesh expatriates left Dhaka for the UAE through a much-anticipated Covid-19 test on a mobile RT-PCR laboratory mounted on a van outside the airport.

Earlier on September 14, the health ministry approved seven private laboratories to set up RT-PCR booths to test outgoing passengers for Covid-19 at the airport.

The six approved private laboratories are — Gulshan Clinic Limited, Stemz Health Care (BD) Limited Dhaka, CSBF Health Centre, AMZ Hospital Limited, Anwer Khan Modern Medical College Hospital (AKMMCH), and DMFR Molecular Lab and Diagnostics.

Zainul Haque Sikder Women’s Medical College Hospital was later excluded from the list as it did not send its standard operating procedure to the UAE authorities.

The expatriates’ welfare ministry has fixed the test fees. The laboratories would enable passengers to undergo Covid-19 tests at the booths by paying a minimum of Tk 1,700 to a maximum of Tk 2,300.