Italy too suspends Biman special flights
After Japan, it's now Italy, which has suspended Biman's special chartered flights to and from the European country after several Bangladeshi passengers on yesterday's flight tested positive for Covid-19 despite having documents certifying that they had tested negative and were safe to travel.
"The Minister of Health, Italy, Roberto Speranza, ordered the suspension of flights arriving from Bangladesh following the significant number of positive [Covid-19] cases found on the last flight which arrived in Rome yesterday," said a release of the Italian health ministry today.
The release also said that in agreement with the Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, a suspension valid for a week has been arranged during which new precautionary measures will be worked out for extra Schengen and extra EU arrivals.
News Agency Reuters's quoting the Italian health ministry also said: "Italy is suspending all flights from Bangladesh for one week due to a significant number of passengers who tested positive for coronavirus on a flight to Rome on Monday."
Last week, the Lazio region around Rome urged the local Bangladeshi community to test for coronavirus after seeing clusters of recent cases.
A total of 276 Bangladeshi nationals who were stranded in the country for more than three months due to Covid-19 pandemic were repatriated to Rome on Monday by a special flight of Biman, said Tahera Khandaker, deputy general manager, public relations, Biman.
Mohibul Haque, secretary, civil aviation and tourism ministry, and Biman MD and CEO Mokabbir Hossain said they were not aware of the development.
Earlier in June, Japan put restrictions on special flights between Dhaka and Tokyo after four passengers who had travelled from Bangladesh tested positive for Covid-19 while in quarantine in Japan.
After a suspension of more than three months, the government resumed flight operations on international routes on a limited scale from June 16.
Only Biman, Qatar, Emirates, Air Arabia, Turkish Airlines, Malindo Air and Mihin Lanka have been given permission so far to operate flights from Dhaka.
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