The government has decided to impose a seven-day strict lockdown across Bangladesh from July 1, revising its earlier decision to enforce it from June 28.
The fresh decision was taken at a high-level virtual meeting presided over by Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Saturday evening.
The meeting decided to enforce a limited scale lockdown from June 28 to 30 while a complete lockdown from July 1, confirmed Surath Kumar Sarker, principal information officer of the Press Information Department.
The Cabinet Division will issue a gazette in this regard on Sunday, he said.
State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain told UNB, “Nationwide lockdown will begin on Monday. However, for zonal closing of bills of banking sector and various government offices at the end of the month, the maximum restrictions will kick in from July 1."
In light of the worsening Covid situation, the government announced on Friday that a strict seven-day countrywide lockdown will be enforced from June 28 to curb the virus’ spread.
The decision came following the recommendation of National Technical Advisory Committee (NTAC) on Covid-19.
NTAC suggested enforcing a minimum of 14-day complete shutdown to stem the tide of infection.
Meanwhile, the government's announcement of a strict seven-day complete lockdown from June 28 has triggered a mass exodus of homebound people from Dhaka.
Bangladesh on Saturday surpassed the 14,000-mark of fatalities from Covid-19 with 77 fresh deaths in the last 24 hours.
The country also recorded a total of 8,83,138 cases with 4,334 people testing positive over the same period. The test positivity rate jumped to 22.50 per cent, a clear indication of deteriorating condition.
