Emergency alert at Chittagong Airport due to Corona

The civil aviation authority has decided to shut down the Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong for all international flights, amid the growing safety concerns due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

All international flights are banned from landing at the Osmani International Airport in Sylhet as well, except the flights from London, the UK.

Air Vice Marshal M Mafidul Rahman, chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune on Friday.

These bans will remain effective for an indefinite period, he added.

Asked about Hazrat Shahjalal International airport in Dhaka, the biggest airport in Bangladesh, the CAAB chairman said: “We are still considering the option.”

International travelling is becoming more and more restricted every day, as countries all around the world continue put up travel bans to stem the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic through the inflow of air passengers.

Covid-19, caused by a new strain of coronavirus, broke out in Wuhan city, in the Hubei province of China, in December 2019.

As of 11:50pm, Bangladesh time, on March 20, 263,071 people have been infected with the virus around the world, of whom 11,113 patients have died, according to the Coronavirus Research Center of Johns Hopkins University in the US.

In Bangladesh, the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has confirmed 20 cases of Covid-19 infections. Of them, a 70-year-old patient died on Wednesday, and the first three patients have fully recovered and been sent home.