In the wake of second wave of Covid-19 pandemic with rising incidents of corona infection, the government on Monday decided to extend the ongoing lockdown for another week.
The government took the decision on Monday, two days before the ending of the ongoing lockdown, which was supposed to be ended on Wednesday, April 21.
"The lockdown will remain in force from April 22 to 28 with the same restrictions imposed in the previous week. It will be a stricter one," said State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossian.
The state minister for public administration also said the lockdown has been extended following the recommendations by the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19.
“Scientifically, if there is no lockdown for 14 or 15 days, it is not possible to break the chain of infection completely. In that context, the lockdown will continue from April 22 to 26, subject to the previous conditions”, said the state Minister.
Earlier, Minister for Road Transport and Bridges, Obaidul Quader, also the General Secretary of ruling Awami League, said the government considered the extension of the lockdown following the advice of experts.
He, however, said, in need of life and livelihood, the government is also thinking of easing the lockdown before the Eid-ul-Fitr.
Meanwhile, movement of all the international flights have been announced closed till April 28.
However, special flights for Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, UAE and Singapore will remain continued for special purposes so that thousands of expatriate workers trapped in the country can return to their workplaces.
The government earlier had allowed the movement of flight for those countries from April 17.
Earlier, all international passenger flights were canceled for one week from April 14 as per the government directives. As a result, it became uncertain for 20,000 to 25,000 expatriate Bangladeshi workers to return to their workplaces.
It should be mentioned that due to the ongoing lockdown started from April 14, movement of all modes of public transports, including bus, train, launch and domestic flights remained shut in view of curbing transmission of coronavirus.
Besides, except for emergency services like banks, hospitals and garments industries, all the government, no-government and privet offices, markets and shopping centres remained shut.
On the other hand, the ongoing lockdown is being enforced with the low response by the people. Most of the mass people do not obey the rules and follow the guidelines prescribed by the government.
A large number of vehicles, including private cars, auto-rickshaws and rickshaws were plying on roads in capital Dhaka as well as elsewhere in the country.
Moreover, public gatherings at different kitchen markets, grocery shops and other markets like fish, vegetables and iftari have also been increased.
Witnesses said long queues of various transports, including private cars, microbus, rickshaws and CNG-run auto-rickshaws were seen on almost all the roads in the capital Dhaka and different other cities. People were seen moving and gathering at all the lanes of all the residential areas.
On the other hand, law enforcers were seen busy checking people and transports moving on the roads. They were checking whether those people and transports were moving with movement passes.
It should be mentioned that the police department has introduced a system of movement pass for emergency movement purposes. Police, however, filed many cases and fined many people for not having the movement passes.
Some of the police officials admitted that some of the rickshaws, private cars and motorbikes were moving on the roads despite the ban on their movement. Some day labourers were also seen coming out on the roads.
