A group of people, who have been put on a mandatory quarantine over coronavirus fear at Ashkona Hajj camp in Dhaka upon their return from Italy, demonstrated on Saturday demanding home quarantine.
The protesters, who claimed to have undergone test twice en route to Dhaka from Italy via Dubai, said they were not being provided with sufficient foods and provisions at the camp.
The protest began in the afternoon when several of the quarantined started demonstrating outside the camp in presence of police and Ansar members, protesting no health officials’ visit to see them.
"We are in good health; no fever, no coughing. Let us go homes," they chanted.
The protesters also tried to leave the camp shouting against the authorities’ negligence before police took them inside.
An Italy returnee said, "We have tested negative for coronavirus in Italy and Dubai. We show no symptoms of coronavirus at Dhaka airport too. “I do not understand why we have been quarantined?” he lamented. Earlier on Saturday, a total of 142 Bangladeshis arrived on a flight of Emirates Airlines from Italy via Dubai. Soon after their arrival, they were shifted to the Ashkona camp.
First reported in China late last year, a novel coronavirus or Covid-19 has infected more than 137,000 people with around 5,100 deaths in 120 countries so far.
On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that Europe was now the epicentre for the global coronavirus pandemic and reporting more daily cases than China did at the height of its outbreak, reported Reuters.
On March 8, Bangladesh first reported three cases of Covid-19. Of the three infect, two had returned from Italy before they tested negative while a female family member of the returnee contracted the virus.
All three, however, recovered from the virus within a week.
