Bangladesh to extend lockdown by a week in virus flareup

Bangladesh has decided to extend the ongoing virus lockdown by a week to Apr 28, State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain says.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 19 April 2021, 09:06 AM
Updated : 19 April 2021, 10:03 AM

The new phase of the lockdown will continue from Apr 22 to Apr 28, merging it with the ongoing phase that ends on Apr 21.

The decision was made at a ministerial meeting at 11 am on Monday.

“The COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee recommended the lockdown be extended by seven days,” Hossain told bdnews24.com.

“Scientifically, the coronavirus infection cycle cannot be completely broken if the lockdown is not maintained for 14 to 15 consecutive days.”

“Based on that, a decision has been made to extend the lockdown from Apr 22 to Apr 28 under the current restrictions. These rules will remain in place for those seven days.”

Despite the extension of the lockdown, there will be no change to the existing restrictions, the state minister said.

“A summary has been sent to the honourable prime minister. A notice will be issued once she gives permission.”

Asked whether the lockdown could be extended even further, past Apr 28, the state minister said: “Our goal is to manage infections. Future decisions will be taken after we have studied the situation.”

“We believe the disease will be brought under control with the extension from Apr 22 to Apr 29.”

The government imposed strong restrictions in the wake of a massive spike in coronavirus cases. These restrictions were designated as the “strictest lockdown” and were initially put in place until Apr 21.

But a meeting of the National Technical Advisory Committee on COVID-19 recommended on Monday that the ‘strictest lockdown’ be extended for another week.