Bangladesh extends lockdown as cases soar
AREAS BORDERING INDIA BADLY HIT WITH DELTA VARIANT CAUSING MOST INFECTIONS
BANGLADESH on Monday (5) extended its strictest lockdown to July 14 to combat a surge in coronavirus cases led by the highly contagious delta variant, with areas bordering India taking the brunt of infections.
With 164 new coronavirus deaths reported on Monday, it is Bangladesh’s biggest daily rise since the pandemic began, taking the death toll to 15,229. The country also reported the highestever number of new daily infections at 9,964, with the total standing at 954,881.
Nazrul Islam, a virologist and member of a national technical committee that asked the government to extend the lockdown, said the situation is “extremely bad”.
“The delta variant is responsible for 70 per cent of the infections. This variant is highly transmissible. And we still have not seen the peak yet,” he said.
The health department said some 50 per cent of infections are occurring outside the cities, with districts bordering India, where the Delta variant first originated, worst hit. Hospitals are overwhelmed with coronavirus patients. Bangladesh sealed its border with India in April, but trade continues.
“The situation is worsening every day. The lockdown seems to be working. We hope the extension of the lockdown will improve the situation,” a spokesman of the health department said.
A surge in cases prompted the government to order a week of tight controls last Thursday (1), with army troops patrolling streets.
All measures have been extended, the government said. The shutdown has sparked an exodus of migrant workers from Dhaka to home villages.
Factories are allowed to operate observing health protocols while all offices and transportation remain shut expect essential goods carriers and ambulances. Some workers are finding it difficult to survive without any income coming in. “During the lockdown, there is no work. If this continues, I don’t know how I will feed my family,” said Mohammad Manik, father of two, who works as a day labourer at a kitchen market in
Dhaka. “It is not the coronavirus but hunger that will kill us.”
Bangladesh received 2.5 million doses of Moderna Inc’s vaccine from the United States under the Covax globalsharing scheme over the weekend. It also received two million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China.
Bangladesh’s vaccination drive suffered a blow after India stopped exports of the Oxford AstraZeneca shot in response to a surge in domestic infections, with only three per cent of the 170 million so far receiving the two doses.