DHAKA 9 March 2020: Three people have tested positive for the coronavirus (Covid-19) in Bangladesh, an official said on Sunday, marking the first recorded appearance of the pathogen in the South Asian nation.
Two of them are Bangladeshi expatriates who had recently returned from Italy, said Meerjady Sabrina Flora, director of the country’s state-run Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research.
The German Press Agency, dpa and Wam reported the official as saying that the third infected person is a family member of one of the Italy returnees.
Four die at collapsed China quarantine site
SHANGHAI/BEIJING: Four people have died in the collapse of a hotel in the Chinese city of Quanzhou, which was being used to quarantine individuals under observation for the coronavirus, Reuters has quoted the Ministry of Emergency Management as saying on Sunday.
The hotel began to collapse on Saturday evening. As of 10:30 am Beijing time on Sunday, authorities had retrieved 42 individuals from the site of the collapse, the ministry said.
Of that total, four have been confirmed dead, four have severe injuries, and one remains in critical condition, it said.
According to China’s News Agency, Xinhua, the owner of the building has been summoned by police. The building’s first floor had been under renovation at the time of the collapse, the news agency said.
Maldives confirms first cases; two resort islands locked down
MALE: The Maldives has curbed movement on several resort islands, Reuters quoted authorities as saying on Sunday, after the country reported its first two cases of coronavirus.
The two infected people, who are both staff at the Kuredu Island Resort, tested positive late on Saturday. They are believed to have caught the disease from an Italian tourist who has returned to Italy and tested positive there.
There are more than 1,400 people on the island, split equally between guests and staff, according to the tourism ministry.
“These two cases which tested positive are from a resort. They are employees of the resort and are now quarantined,” said Ali Waheed, the tourism minister of the island nation, the economy of which is heavily dependent on foreign tourists.
“The period for the temporary restrictions will be decided by the medical teams. Right now, we have identified people who were in contact with the patients and they are in self-isolation along with secondary contacts. At this time we can say that these individuals will be monitored for fourteen days.”
Waheed said the country was still deciding whether tourists who were not in contact with the patients would be allowed to leave.
It has banned passengers originating from or who had transited through or spent any time in Italy in the preceding 14 days, effective from Sunday.
