COVID-19: US embassy in Dhaka sending back its citizens

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - The U.S. Embassy in Dhaka arranged the second charter flight for several hundred American citizens who were staying in Bangladesh and wished to return to their homeland citing the intensified outbreak of COVID-19.

The first flight left Dhaka on March 30, the embassy in Dhaka said in a statement late Sunday.

U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl Miller and Bangladesh's Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen met at the airport to observe the operations and speak with departing passengers to facilitate the second Qatar Airways charter flight.

While many Americans are staying in Bangladesh, some have decided to return home, and the embassy is committed to helping them do so, it said, adding that as of April 4, the Department of State has coordinated the repatriation of over 40,000 Americans from 78 countries.

The British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson on Sunday in a video message provided some guidance to its nationals as Biman Bangladesh Airlines suspended their flights abroad till April 14, including to the U.K.

Dickson said getting British visitors in Bangladesh back to the U.K. is the top priority, and the country is doing its best to make sure that happens, he continued.

Earlier on April 2, some 327 Japanese nationals stranded in Bangladesh due to the lockdown left the country for Tokyo in a special chartered flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines.

As of Sunday, Bangladesh confirmed 88 cases of coronavirus, and nine have died in total, while 18 new cases were confirmed, setting the highest number of infected in a single day in the country.

The country extended the nationwide lockdown until April 14, citing the rising number of infections across the country.

More than 1.2 million cases of coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Over 68,400 people died after contracting the virus, while 258,500 recovered after treatment.

Since appearing in Wuhan, China, last December, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 183 countries and territories.