BUET ‘locks down’ Dhakeshwari area after resident is infected

All inhabitants of a residential area of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology or BUET have gone into home quarantine after one of them tested positive for the coronavirus.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 23 March 2020, 08:06 PM
Updated : 23 March 2020, 08:22 PM

The Environment Committee of the BUET-Dhakeshwari Residential Area decided to “lock it down” for 14 days from Monday after the test results came, said Md Mizanur Rahman, the director at BUET Directorate of Students’ Welfare.

There is no student on the campus as BUET has been closed since Mar 16 after the outbreak began.

As many as 150 families live in the quarters designated for BUET teachers and staffes in Dhakeshwari Residential Area.

There are 44 families in the building where the patient lives.

The Environment Committee’s President Professor Pran Kanai Saha and Member Secretary Dr AFM Saiful Amin issued an urgent notice announcing the decision on the “lockdown”.

“The decision on social distancing has been made for everyone’s safety and in their greater interest,” they said.

People with knowledge of the matter said the patient is the mother of a teacher. She has been suffering from fever, cold and respiratory problems for some days after returning from India around two weeks ago.

Medical workers from the government’s disease control agency IEDCR collected sample from her three days ago and it confirmed on Monday that she caught the virus, Mizanur said.

They also collected samples from her two daughters.

The total number of known coronavirus cases in Bangladesh stood at 33 on Monday, with six new cases and a third death.