2 of them now test negative

Of the three reported coronavirus patients in Bangladesh, two were diagnosed negative as tests were conducted on them for the second time on Tuesday.

"Their health status is better and they will be released soon as per the WHO protocol," Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora, director, Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), said yesterday.

The third patient, however, tested positive in the second test but is currently in a stable condition, she said at a regular press briefing organised at the IEDCR in Mohakhali.

Apart from the three, the IEDCR tested a total of 10 new samples in the last 24 hours and all the test results were negative, Dr Meerjady said. 

Bangladesh on March 8 confirmed its first three cases of coronavirus. Two of them had recently returned from Italy.

Covid-19 -- the seventh strain of the virus that was first detected in China's Wuhan city in December -- can remain in the human body for up to 14 days without showing any symptom, according to WHO.

The IEDCR also announced a single hotline number: 01944333222.  

"Callers often find the existing numbers busy. Now calls will be automatically forwarded to the numbers that are not busy," Prof Meerjady added.

The IEDCR has requested people who arrive in Bangladesh from abroad to keep themselves in quarantine at home for about two weeks.

"If they develop any symptom of COVID-19 during the quarantine period, they are asked to contact IEDCR," she said.

Meanwhile, the IEDCR yesterday collected blood sample of a person in Cumilla. The person returned from Singapore on March 6. 

He contacted the IEDCR as he had been suffering from flu for about three days, reports our Cumilla correspondent.

In Dinajpur, the IEDCR collected blood sample of another person who returned from China on February 27.