Bangladesh has stepped up its port screening measures as the new China coronavirus continued to spread to more countries including neighbouring India.
The WHO’s Emergency Committee on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on Thursday sat in a meeting in Geneva to review the situation as the virus has already claimed 170 lives in China’s Wuhan province, the epicentre of the disease.
The committee can advise the WHO chief to declare the situation a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Till filing of this report on Thursday 8:30pm (Bangladesh time), there was no briefing about the meeting.
The Lancet editor Richard Horton, however, tweeted in favour of declaring this ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’, considering the present situation.
Dr ASM Alagmir, principal scientific officer of the government’s disease monitoring arm, IEDCR, told Bangladesh Post that they have updated the airport authority on the latest situation.
“If declared emergency, we will screen all inbound passengers,” he said. Currently the screening measure is only focused on flights coming from China.
The district hospitals are ready with isolation units to provide treatment, if needed.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had earlier instructed ministries concerned to take steps to bring back the willing-to-return Bangladeshis from China.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said they would bring back the students from the Wuhan province once China allows.
“370 students have registered so far showing their wiliness to return,” he said, adding that, “China assured us that they will take all measures if anyone affected. We have kept aircraft ready. It’ll require just one flight to take them back”.
Chinese health authorities on Thursday confirmed 7,711 cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus in 31 provincial-level regions.
The Bangladesh embassy in Beijing opened a website for expatriates willing to return to register.
The Embassy also opened a 24-hour hotline to provide emergency support to the expatriate Bangladeshis. The hotline number is +86 178-0111-6005.
On 31 December 2019, WHO was alerted to several cases of pneumonia in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. The virus did not match any other known virus. This raised concern because when a virus is new, we do not know how it affects people.
One week later, on 7 January, Chinese authorities confirmed that they had identified a new virus. The new virus is a coronavirus, which is a family of viruses that include the common cold, and viruses such as SARS and MERS. This new virus was temporarily named “2019-nCoV.”