Bangladesh extends coronavirus ‘lockdown’ till 6 June

The government has extended ongoing Covid-19 restrictions till 6 June midnight to prevent the transmission of the deadly virus, in light of the current Covid-19 situation in the country and in neighbouring India.

The cabinet division issued a gazette notification in this regard on Sunday. 

As per the notification, government offices and educational institutions will remain closed without emergency services. Apart from this, everything will remain open on a limited scale.

State Minister for Public Administration, Farhad Hossain, said restrictions on movement have been extended on the advice of the National Technical Committee. This will continue until the infection rate reaches 5%, the state minister said.

The committee has also suggested a lockdown in seven border districts, including Chapainawabganj, Satkhira, Kushtia, Rajshahi and Natore, which is being considered, the state minister added.

Currently, public transport is operating at half capacity. Hotels and restaurants are also allowed to stay open at half their capacity as well.

As the coronavirus situation took a severe turn in Bangladesh at the beginning of April, the government declared a seven day lockdown across the country from 5 April, to stem the surge of the viral disease.

After a two-day break, the country went into an eight-day strict lockdown from 14 April. Later, the lockdown was extended until 23 May and 30 May in phases.

Border with India to remain closed till 14 June

The government has extended closing the border with India till 14 June as the Covid-19 situation continues to worsen in our neighbouring country. 
The announcement was made on Sunday.

Earlier on 21 May, the closure of cross-border movement with India was extended by seven days to 31 May.

Due to the Covid-19 situation, the government closed the border with India for 14 days from 26 April, which expired on 9 May. After that, in the second phase, the government extended  closure of the land border for another 14 days till 23 May.

Banking hours extended till 3pm

The Bangladesh Bank has extended banking hours till 3pm, effective Monday (31 May) amid the general holidays.

The central bank issued a circular in this regard on Sunday. 

"Bankers will have to stay in branches till 4pm to complete official tasks," read the circular.

In the circular, the central bank also said other directives of the circular issued on 13 April would remain in force.

Those directives had stated that banking activities would run on a limited scale every day except public and weekly holidays. Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, the banking transaction time was 10 am to 4 pm.