In the face of a sudden rise in the transmission of Covid-19, the government has imposed a 7-day countrywide lockdown from Monday, primarily to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
However, emergency services will remain out of the lockdown purview. The factories and industrial areas will also remain open with limited workers maintaining health safety rules.
The Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader made the announcement while briefing the media yesterday.
In a video message sent to the media from Bailey Road home on Saturday, State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain said only those that provide emergency services would remain open in the lockdown. Factories and industrial areas will remain open during the lockdown with limited workers in different shifts maintaining health safety rules.
The state minister said, "Hopefully, if we can keep people indoors for these seven days, we can prevent infection. Otherwise, the infection rate will spread again. People have various issues, we will consider them towards the end of the seven-day lockdown. We will take expert advice and then we shall decide later. For now, it will be seven days.”
Besides, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Shafiqul Islam said police will take tougher decisions with its enforcement of the new nationwide lockdown. None will be allowed to breach lockdown rules.
The number of daily infections and deaths from the virus has suddenly taken a sharp rise over the past several days. The numbers are reaching new highs every day.
The current rising trend in daily infections and deaths is faster compared to even that recorded in June-July last year when the first wave of the pandemic reached its peak in the country.
Experts say this time the infection situation is very grave. If strict steps are not taken to control the spread, infections and fatalities will rise further, they warn.
Earlier, the National Technical Advisory Committee (NTAC) on Covid-19 had recommended "partial or modified" lockdown of "high-risk" areas.
According to the health directorate, the government has classified Dhaka, Narayanganj, and Chattogram as "high risk" zones. Four districts -- Rangamati, Rajshahi, Rajbari, and Narsingdi -- have been classified as "medium risk" zones while 27 other districts have been identified as "low risk" zones.
The committee also suggested that the government increase the number of general and ICU beds at hospitals for coronavirus patients.
Earlier, on March 29, the government issued 18 directives to prevent coronavirus infection. Then, as part of their implementation, sanctions and restrictions were announced in various cases. Meanwhile, all the tourist centers in the country have been directed to remain closed till April 14.
Due to coronavirus, lockdown was imposed in Bangladesh for more than three months last year. However, the government called the lockdown situation, which began on March 26, 2020, a "normal holiday". Initially, a 'holiday' was declared from March 26 to April 4. It was extended several times further to keep the virus under control. Later the lockdown was relaxed after June as the number of cases and deaths from the virus went down.
The government had issued a notification announcing to take legal action if people go out without any emergency need from 6 pm to 8 am across the country.
At the same time, the administration imposed barriers to stop the movement from one area to another.
At that time all offices, courts, mills, educational institutions were shut down and all kinds of vehicles were banned from operating in the country. The situation where everything is closed during the holidays is known as ‘lockdown’.
But when the livelihood of the lower class and the existence of the country's production system was in crisis, the government started to relax the restrictions step by step from May 31 onwards at the demand of various quarters. At the end of the year, all the restrictions were lifted except for the closure of schools and colleges.
The plan was to divide the country into red, yellow and green zones to control the spread of the virus, and to impose lockdown restrictions according to the situation. The system was also piloted in a few areas. But later it did not go ahead.
