‘Institutional quarantine for passengers from India not possible now’

Although the government has again instructed 14-days institutional quarantine of passengers returning from India to prevent Covid-19 infection in the country, doing so may not be possible now.

A letter with the quarantine instruction reached Benapole Immigration Health Department and Immigration Police today.

Ashrafuzzaman, medical officer of the Benapole Immigration Health Department, however, said it is not possible to keep the returnees in institutional quarantine at the moment as they had no prior preparation.

The local administration and health department are working together to create an environment to keep passengers in quarantine, he told our Benapole correspondent.

Port authorities said as they just received the government instruction, there hasn't been enough time to prepare.

They will need to prepare quarantine locations and get the necessary supplies for those, they said.

Meanwhile, passengers returning to the country earlier could stay in institutional quarantine with government funding, but this time they will have to bear their personal expense.

Tutul Hossain, a passenger who returned from India today, said, "I went to India for treatment. When I travelled there, I had to pay TK 1,500 and I paid 1,500 rupees for a Covid-19 test to return home.

"On the way back, I had no money except bus fare. In this situation, how I stay in institutional quarantine for 14 days at my personal expense?" he asked.

According to the immigration, at present 1,000 to 1,500 passengers are traveling between the two countries every day. Of them, 95 percent passengers are traveling with medical visas.

The other five percent are going on business and diplomatic visas. Tourist visas have been been closed since March 13 last year.

India's Covid-19 situation is turning from "bad to worse," a senior government official said today, as infections surge across several states.