Bangladesh will bar passengers from all European nations, except the UK, effective from April 3, as virus cases and deaths surge.
The ban will also apply to 12 other countries: Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Peru, Qatar, South Africa, Turkey and Uruguay, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh said in a notice, dated Mar 31, reports bdnews24.com.
The notice will remain in force until Apr 18.
Airlines flying to Bangladesh from those countries are allowed to carry only transit passengers, according to CAAB.
Irrespective of the COVID-19 vaccination, all incoming passengers must mandatorily possess and show ‘PCR-based COVID-19 negative certificates’ at airports. The PCR test has to be done within 72 hours of the flight departure time, according to the notice.
On arrival in Bangladesh, the passengers must complete a mandatory four-day institutional quarantine at government facilities or a government-approved hotel at passengers’ expense.
Samples will be collected for the COVID-19 PCR tests and the passengers will be released to complete a 14-day home quarantine (including the institutional quarantine time) if the test results return negative.
Bangladesh on Wednesday logged 5,358 new cases of the coronavirus, the highest daily count, taking the tally of infections to 611,295. The death toll climbed by 52 in 24 hours to 9,046.