A total of 304 Bangladeshi passengers, including 95 from Italy and Germany, lands at Dhaka airport.

The government will brief diplomats stationed in Dhaka at 6:00pm today at State Guesthouse Padma on the coronavirus issue.

Oman has suspends air communication with Bangladesh from this evening, Deputy General Manager of Public Relations at Biman Bangladesh Airlines Tahera Khandaker tells The Daily Star.

Foreign nationals staying in Bangladesh with valid visas will have the option of extending their visas by three months, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).

Three more persons were diagnosed with COVID-19 in Bangladesh yesterday, raising the current number of affected people in the country to five, says Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora, director of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).

Education Minister Dipu Moni today said all educational institutions will remain closed till March 31, starting from tomorrow, as a preventive measure against spread of the coronavirus.

Bars, restaurants, theatres and movie houses in New York and Los Angeles were ordered to shut down and several nations in South and Central America closed their borders in the latest moves around the world to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

The first participant in a clinical trial for a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus will receive an experimental dose in Seattle of US on Monday.

Cafes, shops and restaurants shut down across France and Spain and travellers face chaos at US airports as governments step up their fight against the coronavirus pandemic which has now reportedly killed more than 6,000.

All Dutch schools, cafes, restaurants and sport clubs are ordered to be closed as the government seeks to prevent further spread of coronavirus in the Netherlands.

India yesterday reported that the number of coronavirus infections had risen to 107, an increase of 23 from the day before, with a

Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh has directed all airlines not to carry passengers from European countries, except the UK, to Bangladesh from 12:00pm tomorrow till March 31.

The new coronavirus has killed 113 people in Iran in the past 24 hours, raising the country’s death toll to 724, while the number of infected people had reached 13,938, a health ministry official says in Twitter..

In the wake of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, with Europe being the new epicenter, the ISIS terrorist group has advised its members to “stay away from the land of the epidemic”, reports The Sunday Times.

Families of Bangladeshis returning from Italy, who were taken to Ashkona Hajj Camp after they landed this morning, have raised concerns about the facilities at the camp and alleged they were “below standard”.

The United States and Germany are vying to produce an exclusive vaccine against the coronavirus which is being developed in a German laboratory, Die Welt daily reported Saturday.

A Supreme Court lawyer has filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking directives on the government to close all educational institutions, land, sea and air ports and borders across the country to prevent spread of coronavirus.

No flights from coronavirus affected countries will be allowed to enter Bangladesh, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has said.

Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has urged all suspected coronavirus patients not to come to the IEDCR directly for getting tested.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque today said only the education ministry can decide to close schools and colleges, and they [health ministry] can simply give advice on the matter.