Moudud Ahmmed Sujan

A total of 312 Bangladeshis, who were stranded in Coronavirus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan, landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital yesterday morning.

Family members of the returnees said they were relieved after their relatives’ return, but a fear of the virus transmission gripped them.

Nasima, whose 19-year-old son Sadman Sakib was one of the returnees, said she was afraid that the virus might transmit to the returnees from one person as they were kept in a congested area.

“He [Sakib] was under better [medical] supervision in China,” she said.

Nasima, along with her husband Sharifuzzaman, waited in front of Ashkona Hajj Camp throughout the day but failed to meet their son.

Of the returnees, 304 were kept quarantined in four rooms on the third floor of the camp where they would stay for the next 14 days under observation.

Rest of the seven were directly sent to Kurmitola General Hospital and another to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka cantonment from the airport. They had high body temperature.

Like Nasima- Sharifuzzaman couple, many guardians and relatives of the returnees were seen thronging on the camp premises to know about the situation of their loved ones.

Some of them alleged that the authorities concerned were not supplying enough food for the returnees. Quoting the returnees inside the camp, they alleged that the environment inside the camp was dirty with mosquito infestation.

Shariar Sajjat, assistant health director of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, said a chartered flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines landed at the airport at 11:55am with the returnees.

Three infants, 12 children and 297 adults were among the returnees. None of them had flu symptoms while boarding the flight in Wuhan, he added.

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