Did over 10m people leave Dhaka to celebrate Eid amid lockdown?

Mobile phone location data suggest that an astonishing number of people left Dhaka for Eid-ul-Fitr defying lockdown restrictions imposed to curb coronavirus infections.

Users of more than 10 million SIM cards moved out of the city for the celebrations, according to data posted by Post and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar on Facebook on Sunday.

“You can’t say the exact number of people moving in and out of Dhaka during Eid from this SIM data because one user may have more than one active SIM. And a user can be accompanied by multiple people (without mobile phone),” the minister told bdnews24.com.   

“But it’s right that the data give us an idea of how many people moved,” he added.

The data are on people’s movement from May 4 to May 15. Muslims in Bangladesh celebrated the Eid on May 14.  

The exodus by crammed ferries and small passenger vehicles or goods transport amid a shutdown of long-haul buses has stoked fears of a rapid rise in infections, prompting the government to extend the ongoing lockdown by seven days to May 23.

The government had eased the lockdown restrictions during Eid but kept long-haul passenger transport services on hold mainly to stop the outbreak from spreading to rural areas.

The authorities had ordered the employees of government, semi-government, autonomous and private organisations, banks and non-bank financial institutions not to leave stations during Eid holidays that ended on Sunday.