A total of 202 passengers from the United Kingdom, arrived at Sylhet Osmani International Airport on Thursday morning amid panic over a new variant of Covid-19 in the UK.
Among them, 165 passengers landed at Sylhet Osmani International Airport and the rest at Hazrat Shajalal International Airport Dhaka.
Md Hafiz Ahmed, manager at Sylhet Osmani International Airport confirmed the news.
He said, “The BG202 flight from the United Kingdom's Heathrow airport left for Dhaka Shahjalal International Airport after dropping off 165 passengers at the Sylhet airport at 9.10am."
Sylhet Sadar Upazila Health Complex Official Dr Sirajum Munir said that all the passengers had Covid-19 negative certificates with them. They were allowed to leave the airport after a detailed analysis of all their documents.
However, all the passengers have been directed to stay in home quarantine for 14 days and the local administration will monitor if they would quarantine themselves or not, Sirajum added.
Earlier today, Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) said the new variant of Covid-19 similar to that found recently in the UK has been identified in Bangladesh.
Dr Md Salim Khan, principal scientific officer at BCSIR, made the disclosure to the media on Thursday.
BCSIR said it sequenced the genomes of five samples of the novel coronavirus in early November and found its similarities with the new variant discovered in the UK.
The rapid spread of the new variant of coronavirus has been blamed for the introduction of strict tier four mixing rules for millions of people, harsher restrictions on mixing at Christmas in England, Scotland and Wales, and other countries placing the UK on a travel ban.
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