The government on Sunday again suspended operations of all public transports excepting goods-carrying vehicles and rickshaws from 6:00am on June 28 to 6:00am on July 1 to contain the Covid outbreak amid the mad rush of people to and from the Dhaka city following the government’s recent announcement of a nationwide ‘stricter lockdown’.

The government and non-government offices would remain open ensuring the presence of the lowest number of people needed to run the offices on their own arrangements, said a circular of the Cabinet Division issued on the day.

People have been left puzzled as there were frequent changes in the government decision on ‘lockdown’ in the past couple of days.

On Sunday, thousands of people continued to cross the River Padma through the Shimulia-Banglabazar water channel mainly to leave Dhaka while a huge number of people also left different southern districts to travel back to Dhaka largely violating the health regulations.  

The National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 on June 24 recommended a complete shutdown across the country for 14 days as the countrywide restrictions on public movement and activities largely ignored by the people since April 5 have been extended for the 10th time till July 15.

According to the daily Covid situation update by the Directorate General of Health Services, Bangladesh logged the highest ever 119 daily Covid deaths in the past 24 hours until Sunday 8:00am and the latest tally took the death toll to 14,172 and cases to 8,88,406.

All shopping malls, markets, tourist centres, tourist resorts, community centres and entertainment centres will remain closed during the time while restaurants and food shops would be allowed to sell foods online or for takeaway from 8:00am to 8:00pm, said the circular signed by deputy secretary Md Rezaul Islam.

The fresh restrictions for three days came a day after a high-level meeting decided to enforce a weeklong strict lockdown across the country from July 1 instead of June 28, revising its decision considering the official activities relating to the closure of the financial year on July 30, according to officials.

The law enforcement agencies would be patrolling on a regular basis to enforce the order.

The authorities concerned were asked to conduct more campaigns and take legal actions when necessary to make sure that people wear masks, according to the circular.

Health minister Zahid Maleque said that army and Border Guard Bangladesh members beside police would be deployed to enforce the weeklong lockdown beginning on Thursday to contain the surge in Covid infections.

He told reporters at the secretariat that the lockdown would be enforced on a limited scale from Monday as the situation was turning worse and the stricter lockdown would begin on Thursday.

The health minister said that the Covid infection surge must be checked by ensuring that people follow the government-set health guidelines.

A high-level meeting virtually chaired by home affairs minister Asaduzzaman Khan revised the decision on ‘stricter lockdown’ considering the end of the fiscal year on June 30 and government activities related to it, said a senior official.

Earlier, the authorities had allowed all public transports to resume services on conditions with effect from May 24 after a shutdown of 49 days.

After the Cabinet Division on June 21 in an order imposed a ban on all public activities in general, including public movement, in the districts of seven districts around Dhaka from June 22 to June 30, movement of all inter-district public transports including buses, trains, launches, trawlers and speedboats were suspended.

New Age correspondent in Munshiganj reported that amid the restrictions in seven districts since Sunday morning, thousands of passengers crossed the River Padma through the Shimulia-Banglabazar channel to travel back to Dhaka or to reach the southern districts.

The number of people leaving Dhaka for other districts was higher in the ferries that were packed with passengers who were forced to change vehicles in many places while there were only few private vehicles found at the ferry terminals.

The ferries carried mostly and goods-laden vehicles and the ones engaged in emergency services.

According to witnesses, no social distancing was maintained on these ferries.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation assistant manager at Shimulia terminal Shafayet Ahmed said that since morning, the pressure of passengers was huge while 15 ferries were running on the route.