As the government of Bangladesh is considering easing the coronavirus lockdown next month, an economist suggests doing that ‘scientifically and intelligently’ to avoid any risk.
Dr Ashikur Rahman, Senior Economist of the Policy Research Institute (PRI), made four recommendations while talking to Bangladesh Post in this regard.
“If we look at what is happening in Mumbai now where health infrastructure has almost collapsed - there is no reason for not approaching the easing of the lock down as scientifically and as intelligently as possible,” he said.
“There is no reason to think that 20,995 cases now will not become half a million cases in next three months as three positive cases on March 8th has increased to this number on May 15th,” he said on Saturday as the government has extended the lockdown in the name of general holidays till May 30 with allowing businesses to reopen.
There are plans to relax it further from June 1.
Dr Rahman, also Member Secretary of Bangladesh Economists' Forum, said first of all we need to develop ‘three’ separate health protocols for - (a) "High Density" work places, such as RMG; (b) "Medium Density" work places like shopping malls; and (c) "Low Density" work places like small shops and offices.
Secondly, he said for "High Density" work places, install "GPS mapping" to track Covid-19 outbreaks that can help the government to put in place targeted contact tracing and specific area lockdowns. “The outbreaks itself can be monitored through anti-body testing of ‘every staff’ every two weeks.”
Third, he suggested developing 2000 units of 5-member oversight teams for regulating health protocols for roughly 10000 (RMG and other manufacturing/service units), which can help monitor if health protocols are followed.
“Members from our armed forces can be used for forming these ‘health oversight teams’,” he said.
Fourth, he said hotspot mapping and area specific lockdown should be prioritized over nationwide lockdown.
“This needs more careful and rigorous contact tracing response mechanism, which should receive priority.”
