4 IEDCR staffers tested positive; Director Meerjady Flora quarantined

Four staffers of Bangladesh's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) have been infected by coronavirus. 

As part of preventive measure to stem further escalation, eight others of the institution, including IEDCR Director Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora and Chief of Virology Lab Prof ASM Alamgir, have been sent to home quarantine.

Prof Nasima Sultana, additional director (admin) of the Directorate General of Health Services, confirmed this to some local media. 

"Four of the sample collectors and related staffers have tested positive. For this, eight, including the director and chief of virology lab, are in home quarantine," local the Daily Star quoted Prof Nasima Sultana as saying.

She added that that those who were infected were under the treatment at a hospital in the capital.

The four staffers tested positive for coronavirus on April 7. No new staff tested positive after that, said Habibur Rahman Khan, additional secretary of the Health Service Division of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

However, ten more people died of COVID-19 and 341 more people were infected with the novel coronavirus in Bangladesh in the past 24 hours ending 8:00am Thursday.

With the new figures, the death toll from COVID-19 rose to 60 and the number of infected people rose to 1,572 while 49 infected have recoved the disease.

Kamruzzaman