Rome Suspends Flights From Bangladesh After Virus Cases

Rome, July 7 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Jul, 2020 ) :Italy's health minister ordered the suspension of flights to Rome from Bangladesh on Tuesday, after a spate of coronavirus cases within the community that authorities worry could expand.

On Monday, the Lazio region surrounding Rome issued a special decree calling for passengers from Dhaka to be given virus tests upon their arrival at Rome's Fiumicino airport.

Of the 225 arriving Dhaka passengers on Monday, 21 tested positive for the disease, Lazio's top health official Alessio D'Amato said on Tuesday, calling it a "veritable viral 'bomb' that we've defused".

Health Minister Roberto Speranza said in a statement that a one-week suspension of flights had been ordered.

As of Monday, 32 coronavirus cases had been reported within the Bangladeshi community, Lazio president Nicola Zingaretti wrote in the decree. It was unclear whether that number included the positive cases among the passengers who arrived Monday.

Seventeen of the 32 cases were "imported" from abroad and 15 involved people in contact with those imported cases, the decree said.

It added that a two-week quarantine for passengers from Bangladesh had been insufficient to contain transmission of the virus.