Around 10 to 12 readymade garment (RMG) workers of a factory namely Donglian Fashion (BD) Ltd, located Bashundhara area of Ashulia, felling sick one after other suddenly soon after they joining work, in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital on Saturday morning. The sick workers were later taken to nearest hospital for treatment, as well as factory authority announced closed factory operations for the day.
The sick workers are Mahfuzul, 27, Arif Hossein, 30, Mosharaf Hossein, 27, Sourav, 25, Arifa, 25, Mst Baby, 25, Aleya, 30, Rina Akter, 27, Shyamoli, 27, Ismail, 60. However, Bangladesh Post did not get others patients name initially.
Workers said, a woman worker was firstly fallen sick soon after she joined work in morning; she started vomiting and suffering from headache. After taken her to hospital, one after another workers fell sick gradually, and at a stage 10 to 12 of worker's health condition become critical. Later all were taken to hospital and authority announced closed for the day.
Factory workers claimed that they suffering from such problem at the factory for the last few days, but the factory authority ignored it each of time. Bangladesh Post noticed that workers are consider the matter as a super natural issue.
Dr. Sayemul Huda, Savar Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer told The Bangladesh Post, "We did not though get any information about the incident yet, but it might be a symptom of COVID-19, or they might suffer from Food poisoning, Moreover, it also can happened due to panic. So it's matter of health investigation to know the actual fact, and firstly I urge them to test for COVID-19.
Rafiqul Islam, Manager (Admin & Complience) of Donglian Fashion (BD) Ltd told The Bangladesh Post, "Actually we still could not understand why this happened. 6 to7 workers were one after another fall down at the floor from dizziness, after woman worker, who firstly fell sick, taken to hospital for treatment. Following the incident, panic spreads fast among workers and they leaves factory."
"We got to know that one of our staff of security section, suffering from favor and Diarrhea for last two days, but workers were totally fit till this morning. However, most of the sick workers were get well after primary treatment", he said.
Sorwar Hoosain, Organizing Secretary of Bangladesh Textile and Garments Worker League (BTGWL) said, we heard that workers of the factory often fell sick at working floor I think it should be investigate to identify the reason of such incidents, and to fix it.