Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh has decided to close its border with India for the next 14 days amid record surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths in the neighbouring country.
The decision was taken by Foreign Ministry on Sunday.
A foreign Ministry official said adding that border trade with India will continue despite the decision.
Besides, the Home Ministry will suspend all immigration activities at border stations from Monday.
Movement of travellers through the border will remain suspended in a bid to contain coronavirus spread from India, a Home Ministry source.
“A ban on entry from India has been imposed in line with the instructions of the Prime Minister’s Office,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told reporters.
However, in case of emergency, Bangladesh Missions in Kolkata and Delhi will allow Bangladeshis to enter the country case to case basis, subject to having Covid-19 negative certificate.
Those who will come under special consideration have to go for 14 days home quarantine, according to the meeting decision.
India is in the grip of a rampaging second wave of the pandemic. Coronavirus infections soared again in the country in a “tsunami” of disease, setting a new world record for cases over past few days.
Country’s new daily cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) crossed 3,00,000 for the fourth straight day as the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said on Sunday morning that 3,49,691 fresh infections were detected in the last 24 hours, taking the infection tally to 16,960,172.
More than 2,000 people succumbed to the viral disease yet again, as the related death toll rose by a record 2,767 fatalities and currently stands at 1,92,311, the Health Ministry’s dashboard showed on Sunday morning.
Due to massive surge in Covid cases, India has been witnessing shortage of hospital beds and medical grade oxygen for the last few days.
“In this situation, the government has decided to close all borders with India as a precautionary measures,” a Health Ministry official said.
On Thursday, a proposal to shut down borders with India was rejected an inter-ministerial meeting.
