No Covid restrictions after 22 Feb: Cabinet secretary

Restrictions imposed to curtail the spread of the coronavirus in the country would be lifted after 22 February, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said. 

He made the announcement during a briefing after a cabinet meeting at the secretariat on Sunday (20 February).

The government initially imposed countrywide restrictions on public movement from 10 January as Covid cases started to tick upward.

Later, the restrictions were extended till 21 February midnight.

Under the restrictions, no public gatherings of over 100 people was allowed in both indoor and outdoor locations for social, religious, political, or government events.

Moreover, those participating at public gatherings had to carry their vaccine cards or an RT-PCR negative test report performed within 24 hours before attending the concerned event.

Bangladesh reported 13 new deaths and 2,150 cases of Covid-19 till 8am Saturday.  Meanwhile, the positivity rate dropped to 8.71% during the same period as 24,698 samples were tested across the country. 

On Friday, 24 people died of the virus while 2,584 were infected. 

The latest figures took the country's death toll to 28,944 and the case tally to 19,31,304.