The government on Wednesday extended the ongoing restrictions on public movement and overall activities till May 5 midnight from April 28 midnight to contain the spread of coronavirus amid widespread violation of the health guidelines across the country.
Despite the drop in the positivity rate, public health experts were raising concerns as they believe that the risk of the spread of the virus remains high, especially the kind of devastation experts suspect the Indian variant of coronavirus has recently caused.
If people continue to ignore the health regulations following the reopening of different facilities, we might slide into something worse, they said.
For now, the authorities decided to continue with the 11-point restriction on public movement, public transports and businesses for one month which came into effect on April 5 but remained almost on paper after the second wave of Covid-19 hit the country in the last week of March.
The Cabinet Division issued a circular on Wednesday extending the date till May 5, also imposing a travel ban on passengers from India by land, water or air.
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During the so-called ‘shutdown’ the government allowed banks, malls and markets to reopen though the government and non-government offices remained closed and public transports, including buses, trains and launches, were not allowed to run.
People’s movement by cars, microbuses, CNG-run auto-rickshaws and rickshaws, however, increased following the reopening of shops and malls.
The government on April 11 suspended the operation of all international passenger flights to and from Bangladesh for a week from April 14 but immediately opened flights to and from five destinations including Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE and Qatar from April 17.
The government also resumed the Bangladesh-China flight operation and domestic flight operation on all but Cox’s Bazar routes from April 21.
Covid-19 killed 77 more people and infected 2,955 in 24 hours on Wednesday, raising the death toll to 11,305 and infections to 754,614 in the country, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.
The DGHS in the daily update said that the daily test positivity rate dropped to 10.48 per cent.
The test positivity rate has remained on a declining trend for the past few days after it rose to over 23 per cent in the first week of April.
Noted virologist Nazrul Islam said that extension of the restrictions would not be fruitful at all if the health regulations are not followed.
‘Masks have to be worn by 100 per cent people otherwise the transmission will continue,’ he said.
Nazrul, a former vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and also a member of the National Technical Advisory Committee on COVID-19, said that there were possibilities for spread of Indian variant in Bangladesh as it was not possible to seal off the border between the two countries.
Earlier the government imposed restrictions on public movement and overall activities from April 14 to contain the spread of Covid-19 and again extended it from April 22 to April 28.
On Wednesday, traffic congestion was seen at different busy points of the capital while people were seen rushing to the shopping malls, shops, kitchen markets and banks.
They also went to different worship facilities as usual.
Many of them were seen wearing masks without much care as they donned them under their nose and some continued to ignore wearing any face mask.
Many people were also seen crowding the roadside makeshift shops as well as hotels to buying iftar items in the evening.
Throughout the day, people were seen on roads, footpaths, lanes and by-lanes as in normal times.
Wednesday’s circular imposed six new restrictions including a ban on the entry of people coming from India to Bangladesh by land, water and air while goods transportation remained outside the ambit of the ban.
The circular said that Bangladeshis would be allowed to enter the country on special consideration if they obtain approval from the Bangladesh high commission in India.
It also added that in such cases these people would have to follow the directive by the DGHS for going into a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
The circular also said that shops and shopping malls can only operate between 10:00am and 8:00pm following the health regulations while the ministries of commerce and labour and employment, the commerce organisations and management committees of the markets or agencies concerned will take necessary actions in these regards. Legal action will be taken against any violation, it added.
