Anoy Mukherjee
Bangladesh is facing difficulties like other countries in the wake of coronavirus. In Bangladesh, the first patient of novel covid-19 was found on March 8 and the first case of death was recorded on March 18. After finding the first case on March 8, the government cancelled all the programmes nationwide.
This included the birth centenary programme of our father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman which was supposed to be celebrated from March 17, 2020 onwards for the next one year. The Government of Bangladesh and the people of the country were eagerly waiting to receive some of the important personalities across the world like Honorable Prime Minister of India, the former President of India etc.
The government also cancelled the Independence Day celebration. The country came to a standstill since March 26 and it will go on until April 14 including the garments business, which is the backbone of the Bangladesh economy.
The people of Bangladesh are all in this fight together and they have been following the directives of the Ministry of Health, as well as directives from the Honorable Prime Minister as the country is at the threshold of entering third stage of the pandemic. It is almost effectively being followed however, people belonging to the low income group of villages as well as cities are finding it difficult to make ends meet as they depend on daily wages even though the Government and the non government initiatives are going on.
The PM has already announced Tk 72750 crore to boost the economy. Government has already urged people not to venture out for their religious activities during Shab-E- Bharat. It is a unique move in this country where almost 90 percent of the population are Muslims.
The law and order agencies, the media, the health workers, social organisations and religious leaders are fighting together against the situation to keep Bangladesh safe.
Now government has urged the nation not to celebrate Bengali Nobo-Barsha (New Year) which is a very attractive cultural event. Few years ago, Sheikh Hasina announced festival bonus on this occasion and declared it as a national event. It has become a normal and regular trend to wear new colorful dresses on this occasion.
Now, as per the latest news, the number of affected people surged to 482 and number of deaths are 30. However, as a ray of hope, 33 patients also recovered from it. Dhaka recorded 112 coronavirus infections on Thursday; its biggest daily jump since the start of the pandemic. Now the testing kits and other facilities are sufficient according to the health department.
Anoy Mukherjee is a member of Sampretti, Bangladesh He can be contactd through his email: anoy.mukherjeee@gmail.com.
