The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has approved the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of six companies which have installed RT-PCR labs at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

The approval came into effect at 12pm on Wednesday, said the airport Director Group Captain AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan.

According to airport sources, the UAE Embassy in Dhaka sent a letter to Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) Chairman Air Vice Marshal M Mofidur Rahman on Wednesday afternoon.

According to the letter, the UAE Embassy in Dhaka has been informed by the UAE Civil Aviation Authority that corona tests for the UAE-bound passengers at RT-PCR labs at the airport have been approved.

A request has been made in the letter to start flights from Bangladesh to the UAE.

The UAE in last August made it mandatory for the passengers intending to go to the Gulf State to face an RT-PCR test for coronavirus six hours before their departure.

Consequently, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a Cabinet meeting on September 6 instructed the authorities concerned to ensure RT-PCR test facilities at the international airports of the country.

The Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment on September 15 approved seven private companies to set up RT-PCR labs at the airport following recommendations made by a high-level technical committee and asked the companies to submit SOPs.

Six of the companies submitted their SOPs which were sent to the UAE for approval.

Meanwhile, UAE-bound expatriate workers have staged demonstrations, submitted memorandums and held different programmes demanding that RT-PCR laboratories be set up in the country’s international airports.

BDST: 1952 HRS, SEP 29, 2021
SMS