341 Bangladeshis to arrive from China tonight

Three hundred and forty-one Bangladeshis stranded in the coronavirus-hit Chinese city Wuhan would be brought back on a special flight tonight.

They would be kept at a makeshift hospital at the Ashkona Hajj Camp, public relations officer of the health ministry confirmed last night.

The decision was finalised at a meeting at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) after the ministry of foreign affairs got the green signal from the Chinese authority.

"We were notified of the decision of bringing back those Bangladeshis in the evening. Then we had a meeting at the DGHS. We are now preparing the Ashkona Hajj Camp to keep all returnees quarantined," Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Diseases Control and Research (IEDCR), told The Daily Star last night.

"Ashkona is our primary option; if we need, we can also use Kuwait-Bangladesh Friendship Hospital. Only the Bangladeshis staying in Wuhan city would be brought back and all of them have to stay at the hospital for 14 days. The foreign ministry is coordinating everything. We are now taking preparations to receive them," Prof Flora said.

An inter-ministry meeting has been scheduled for this morning at the airport.

Health Minister Dr Zahid Maleque will brief the media following the meeting.