Italy bans entry from Bangladesh till October 5
The move came a day after 125 Bangladeshis were barred from disembarking from plane at an Italy airport
Bangladeshi citizens or passengers from Bangladesh will not be allowed to enter Italy till October 5 amid fears of coronavirus spread.
Italy's Ministry of Health already issued a notice to airmen (NOTAM) regarding this on Thursday.
According to the NOTAM, no flight from Bangladesh will be allowed to enter Italy. No airlines can bring passengers from Covid-19-hit country due to the risk of further Covid-19 spread. Passengers who came from Bangladesh cannot be brought on transit flights either.
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According to media report, foreign airlines already sent letters to travel agencies after getting the directives.
"Upon request of the Italian Health Ministry, all flights/passengers from Bangladesh with final destination to Italy are forbidden," read a Qatar Airways letter sent to one of their business partners.
The letter further says that the restrictions will be effective from July 8 to October 5.
Meanwhile, a notice from the Home Ministry asked the authorities concerned to place the 151 Bangladeshis, who were barred from disembarking from a plane at an Italy airport, in mandatory quarantine.
The special plane returning with the Bangladeshis is expected to land at Dhaka airport in early hours of Friday.
On Wednesday, 125 Bangladeshi passengers were not allowed to disembark from a Qatar Airways flight at Italy's Fiumicino Airport over concerns of spreading coronavirus.
Authorities said that the Bangladeshi passengers will have to leave on the same plane. The decision of the authorities comes after the order to block all direct flights from Bangladesh by Italian health ministry.
The same fate happened to the passengers of another flight with people from Bangladesh on board that landed at Malpensa.
The death toll from Covid-19 is currently 34,914 in Italy with 242,149 getting infected so far in the country.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh today confirmed 41 more deaths from the novel coronavirus and 3360 new cases of infection testing 15,632 samples in the last 24 hours.
With this, the death toll from the deadly virus rose to 2,238 and the number of total infections stood at 175,494.
