Bangladesh will be put under complete lockdown for a week from April 14. Announcing this in Dhaka on Friday, the State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain said that a ‘hard lockdown’ will be implemented in the country during which all government and private offices and factories will remain closed in order to control the spread of the Coronavirus. Vehicles will not operate during the lockdown and people will be allowed to come out of their homes only in case of emergency. The decision has been taken as per the advice of the experts.
The Minister said that the notification would be issued soon. The decision about further extending the lockdown will be taken after reviewing the situation.
Earlier, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader told the media on Friday that the government is mulling to impose a weeklong complete lockdown from April 14 as the Coronavirus infection is rising alarmingly.
Bangladesh announced a weeklong lockdown on April 5 which is in its fifth day of implementation. However, offices and factories were allowed to open during the lockdown. Initially, all transport services were suspended for a week but on Wednesday, buses were permitted to operate within city limits in the country. Shops and malls were also allowed to open for eight hours daily from Thursday till April 13, following protests from shopkeepers, ridesharing services drivers and others in the country.
Meanwhile, Corona cases continued to remain at a high level in the country. On Friday, according to the latest figures released by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), 63 people died and 7462 fresh Coronavirus cases were reported in Bangladesh. This is the second-highest number of single-day infections since March last year when the first Corona Positive case was detected in the country. The sample positivity rate was also reported to be 23.57 after falling to below 3 percent on Feb. 28.
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