Lockdown now from Thursday

The government has rescheduled its countrywide lockdown from June 28 to July 1.

On Friday evening, Press Information Department (PID) issues a statement stating that the country will be put under a complete lockdown for seven days from Monday.

Within 24 hours of the decision, the government came up with a fresh announcement after holding a high-level meeting chaired by Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.

The cabinet secretary, principal secretary of the Prime Minister's Office, governor of Bangladesh Bank, representatives of BGMEA, BKMEA, and other trade body leaders were present in the meeting.

"The countrywide complete lockdown will be enforced from July 1 (Thursday), not from Monday (June 28)," SK Rafiqul Islam, additional secretary of district and field admin wing of the Cabinet Division, told The Daily Star.

He also said as June is ending and there are some issues relating to the ending of the financial year, the decision was taken to enforce the lockdown from July 1 but there will be limited scale countrywide lockdown from Monday.

The government decided to go for countrywide lockdown when the National Technical Advisory Committee (NTAC) on Covid-19 recommended "a complete nationwide shutdown" for 14 days in the face of a deepening health crisis.

Asked what they meant by a complete shutdown, Prof Mohammad Sahidullah, chief of the NTAC, said, "It means all should stay home. Everything will be closed except for emergency services."

Although the experts said the country must go for complete lockdown, BGMEA leaders said that the factories would be operational in special arrangements during the lockdown.

The Covid-19 situation of the country got worse as this month has recorded the second-highest death after April this year. The infection rate is also on the surge. Yesterday's Covid-19 positivity rate was 22.50 percent.

Sources in the meeting said during the countrywide "complete lockdown" industries especially the RMGs are likely to remain out of the purview of lockdown.

The banking services may also in place for smooth operational activities of the export-oriented transactions, they said.

The meeting sources also said mass transportation will be suspended from Monday and markets, hotels, and restaurants may be in operation for a limited scale from Monday but will go for complete lockdown from July 1.

The details of the lockdown are likely to be made clear today through a press statement.

Currently, the government is trying to save the capital from the surge of coronavirus by isolating Dhaka from the rest of the country.

Lockdown is going on in the seven adjacent districts of Dhaka since June 22 and this will continue till June 30.