Staff Reporter :
As Bangladesh prepares to go into strict lockdown for a week on Wednesday, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) decided to suspend all international flights for the same period of time, aimed at containing the spread of Covid-19.
With this decision in place, operations of around 500 international flights scheduled to and from Bangladesh from April 14 will be suspended for seven days, CAAB Chairman Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman told the media on Sunday,
The move has come on the back of the government’s decision to put the country under a strict lockdown for a week, starting from Wednesday, during which everything will be closed except for emergency services, the CAAB chairman said.
Passenger crisis is another reason behind this decision, he added.
However, chartered flights, cargo flights, air ambulances, and special flights will be excluded
from this suspension, he clarified.
Earlier on Sunday, the CAAB chief had said the civil aviation body was going to make a decision on flight suspension at a meeting.
The flight operations on domestic routes are already suspended since the enforcement of the seven-day lockdown around the country from April 5.
Besides, on April 1, the civil aviation regulator suspended the entry of passengers from all European countries, except the UK, and 12 other countries to Bangladesh from April 3.
Bangladesh is going through a rapid surge in Covid-19 deaths and infections as the second wave of the pandemic has hit the country, with people in general continuing to defy health protocols despite warnings from both the government and experts.
To curb the sharp rise in the transmission of the deadly viral disease, the government has decided to put the country under a week-long hard lockdown starting from Wednesday, which also marks Pohela Boishakh.
On Sunday, the country registered 78 deaths in the span of 24 hours – shattering all of its previous records.
On April 7, the country recorded 7,626 new Covid-19 infections -in 24 hours – the highest single-day detection ever.
As of April 11, the total caseload of the pandemic in the country stands at 684,756 since its first detection in the country on March 8, 2020, and the death toll stands at 9,739, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
