’Strict lockdown’ from Friday

Bangladesh will return to stricter form of lockdown from Friday in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus, State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain has said.

“This lockdown will be stricter than the past ones. There is no alternative but to go for such a decision,” Farhad Hossain said on Thursday, reports Bangla daily Prothom Alo.

The lockdown will be enforced as previously declared. There will be no change to its enforcement process, he added.

According to the announcement of the Cabinet Division, the next course of lockdown restrictions will be resuming at 6:00am on Friday and that it will continue until 12:00am on August 5.

All sorts of public and private offices, mills, factories including apparel factories will remain shut during this 14-day lockdown. The export-bound apparel factories were, however, allowed operation in the previous lockdowns.

Besides, transportation on land, water and air will also stay closed.

Officials and employees of all government, semi-government, and autonomous bodies have been asked to continue their office works from home, virtually.

The authorities of all markets, shopping malls and community and entertainment centres have also been asked to keep their facilities closed during these days.

Earlier on July 16, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) President Jashim Uddin had urged the government to allow businesses, especially export-oriented ones, to keep running amid lockdown but the government did not pay any heed, this time.

The government relaxed the lockdown restrictions for eight days from last Thursday on the occasion of the Eid-ul-Azha.

The government has been imposing nationwide lockdown from April 5 in phases to contain the Delta variant induced second wave of the coronavirus.

The coronavirus situation is gradually getting worse in the country as the health authorities counted 173 more deaths and 7,614 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours until Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, both the death and positivity rates increased in the country in the last 24 hours amid the relaxed lockdown.

The daily positivity rate went up to 30.48 percent on Wednesday which was 29.31 percent on Tuesday and 29.59 percent on Monday, respectively.

Besides, the fatality rate also increased 1.63 percent which was nearly stable at 1.62 percent for the previous three days.