The Health Ministry issued a gazette, in line with the Communicable Diseases (Prevention, Control and Eradication) Act 2018, in this regard on March 19 and it was published on Monday. The gazette also mentioned March 8 as the starting point of the coronavirus outbreak in the country. Apart from Covid-19, the list of communicable diseases also include Nipah, influenza, avian influenza or bird flu, swine flu, anthrax, malaria, diarrhoea, kala-azar, dengue, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, acute respiratory infection, meningitis, typhoid, leprosy, filariasis, leptospirosis, poliomyelitis, Ebola, Zika, chikungunya, MERS-CoV and Japanese encephalitis. After the World Health Organization classified the novel coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic, the High Court on March 18 had directed the government to issue a gazette notification declaring the diease a communicable one for Bangladesh. Since March 8, when Bangladesh detected the first Covid-19 case, authorities have confirmed 33 known cases, three deaths and five recoveries until Monday.

Source: Dhaka Tribune March 23, 2020 17:37 UTC