The National Technical Advisory Committee on the Covid-19 pandemic recommended that a complete nationwide ‘shutdown’ be enforced for at least two weeks to deal with the worsening Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh.

Community transmission of the highly transmissible Delta variant of coronavirus might be the reason behind deterioration in  the Covid-19 situation in the country, said the committee in a media release.

The committee used the example of India as areference to emphasize that no step other than a complete shutdown might be enough to prevent the spread of the Delta variant of the virus.

Also read: Rapid rise in Bangladesh’s Covid cases, 81 more die

“Everything, including offices, courts and businesses, need to be closed for at least 14 days. Otherwise, no other steps taken by the government will be enough to contain the virus,” the committee said.The committee also recommended that at least 80 % of the population should be brought under the vaccination drive, aiming to bring back normal life.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh recorded 6,058 newinfections and 81 deaths in the last 24 hours until Thursday morning.

Also read: Countries like Bangladesh need support for vaccine production: FM

This is the highest number of single-day positive cases in 73 days since April 12.

However, the positivity rate fell slightly to19.93 % on Thursday and the death rate remained static at 1.59 %.