Passenger trains, domestic flights suspended as Bangladesh goes into lockdown from Monday

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Following up on the announcement of a countrywide lockdown in Bangladesh starting from Monday, the Railway Ministry has suspended all passenger train services once lockdown is imposed in the country.

Rail Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said trains are part of public transport and hence steps will be taken as per the decision of the government. However, freight trains will run as per normal schedule.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) has also decided to suspend all domestic flights in the country from Monday in order to curb the spread of Coronavirus. However, the operation of the international flights will not be affected by this decision of CAAB.

Subsequent to the announcement of the lockdown from Monday, people were reported to be  leaving the capital city Dhaka for their respective hometowns and villages. There was a bigger rush in shops also as people prepared themselves for the lockdown.

Earlier in the day, the Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader told the media that a nationwide lockdown will be imposed in Bangladesh from Monday in view of the sharply rising cases of COVID 19 infection and deaths in the country. While the detailed guideline and notification is yet to be issued, it was announced that organisations running emergency services will remain out of the purview of the lockdown. Industries will also remain open and employees will have to work in shifts, following health guidelines. Earlier, the government had issued an 18 point directive limiting the presence of employees in the offices to half and curbs on occupancy in public transport services among other measures to control the spread of Coronavirus in the country.

In the meanwhile, Bangladesh reported 5683 fresh Corona positive cases and 58 deaths on Friday. With this, the total number of people infected with Coronavirus in Bangladesh has gone up to 6.30 lakh. A total of 9213 people have died due to Corona till date. 

The mass corona vaccination programme is continuing in Bangladesh. On Friday, 36,843 people were vaccinated in the country taking the total number of people receiving the COVID 19 shot to 58.52 lakh.