Lockdown Day 3: More people, vehicles on roads as some offices reopen

As the ‘stricter lockdown’ rolled into the 3rd day, public movement and vehicles increased on most streets in Dhaka on Sunday, the first working day of the Eid holidays.

Although public and private offices have been asked to shut down during the ‘stricter lockdown’, factories and emergency services, like banks and other financial institutions, are allowed to open.

The office-goers were seen walking or riding on rickshaws to their destinations due to the non-availability of public transport.

Police were seen very active to maintain the lockdown curbs by setting up several checkpoints in Dhaka, including Science Laboratory Intersection, Elephant Road, Banglamotor, Shahbagh, and Kawran Bazar in Dhaka.

“I’ve to change rickshaws four times to reach Shahbagh from Mirpur 14,” Shahnoor Alam who works in a firm related to the stock market.

At 9:30 am, he was waiting there to go to the office in Motijheel. “I spent Tk 175 to reach Shabagh. After waiting 15 minutes, I got a rickshaw that demanded an abnormal fare of Tk 100 to Motijheel.”

Like Alam, many have been seen standing at different points of the capital for rickshaws, which were allowed to ply during the restrictions.

On the other hand, the traffic on the main street of the city was much higher than the first two days of strict lockdown. A tailback was seen in several places due to the police checking.

“The movement of office-goers increases today (Sunday). Besides, many are going to the hospital to get vaccinated,” Traffic Sergeant Billal Hossain, who is in charge of the Shahbagh intersection, told Business Insider Bangladesh.

“We’re asking everybody for the reasons for coming out of the home. We don't have a choice but to be stringent,” he said.

On July 23, the government reimposed the lockdown until August 5 with curbs after a nine-day break for Eid-ul-Azha in a desperate effort to prevent the record rise in coronavirus infections and deaths.

Along with the police and other security forces, the army is backing on the streets to ensure no one breaches the stay-at-home guidance without an emergency reason.

The country is currently going through a devastating wave of infections after the number of patients had begun to rise in April due to the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.

Amid this grim reality, the administration decided to allow all to celebrate Eid without any curbs by lifting the lockdown for nine days.