The government-announced seven-day strict lockdown across Bangladesh came into effect on Thursday morning to combat the growing numbers of infections and deaths from Covid-19 in the country.
Members of Armed Forces, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Battalion Police were seen patrolling the streets of the capital since morning to strictly enforce the lockdown.
Police have set up barricades and check-posts at all important points of the city to monitor the movement of vehicles as well as people. Therefore, most roads of Dhaka were found almost empty with few private vehicles moving.
However, slow-moving rickshaws were seen moving everywhere in the city.
All government and private offices were closed, with the exception of emergency services, starting from Thursday as part of the lockdown.
UNB reports: Kitchen markets in the city remained open as the government allowed those to operate from 8:00am to 5:00pm.
Abu Saleh Mohammad Raihan, joint commissioner (Traffic North) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said, “Roughly 25 per cent vehicles are plying the city roads compared to the last day as some offices related to emergency services will remain open during the lockdown. However, the police allowed only those vehicles which had valid reasons to move. Army personnel are also there patrolling the city streets.”
No CNG-run auto-rickshaw other than rickshaws were seen on the roads since morning, he said.
Traffic inspector Ziauddin (Demra) said, “Some motorised vehicles are moving there but those were allowed only after checking.”
Asaduzzaman, another traffic inspector (Mohakhali), said: “The number of vehicles is negligible and most of those running with valid reasons.”
However, the public transport remained off the road as per the government directives.
The Cabinet Division issued a gazette notification on Wednesday detailing the restrictions imposed during the countrywide lockdown from July 1 to July 7.
Amid an alarming spike in Covid-19 cases and deaths in recent weeks, Bangladesh registered 8,822 Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, its highest-ever single day figure.
Health authorities also reported 115 deaths from the virus in the last 24-hour until 8:00am, pushing the total fatalities to 14,503. This is the second-highest figure followed by 119 deaths recorded on Sunday.
The number of fresh infections of 8,822 has surpassed all past records by breaking the figure of 8,364 cases registered on Monday.
