Cabinet Division
Covid-19: Bangladesh’s total caseload crosses 8 lakh; 36 more die
As Bangladesh’s fight to stem Covid-19 continues, it recorded 1,710 new cases in 24 hours until Monday morning, raising the total caseload to 8,00,540.
During the period, the deadly virus also claimed 36 more lives.
With the fresh death toll, the total number of fatalities rose to 12,619.
Read:Local admins can enforce lockdown, says Cabinet Secretary
The new cases of infections were detected after carrying out 18, 178 sample tests, said the Directorate General of Health Services in a handout.
The positivity rate dropped to 9.41% from Sunday’s 10.11% while the death rate remained static at 1.58%.
Until now, 7,40,372 people recovered from the virus putting the country’s recovery rate at 92.48%.
The country has so far completed testing 5,947,513 samples.
Among the deceased, 12 are from Chattogram and eight from Dhaka divisions.
Besides, nine died in Rajshahi, six in Khulna and one in Sylhet divisions from Covid-19.
Bangladesh reported its first Coronavirus cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the18th of that month.
Read:Lockdown in Chapainawabganj extended for another week
Border closure continues
Bangladesh on Sunday announced an extension of border closure with India by another two weeks from June 1 to June 14 as the coronavirus situation hardly shows any sign of improvement.
The border with India will remain closed till June 14 but the movement of cargo-carrying goods will remain uninterrupted.
"We've extended it (border closure) for 14 more days and will evaluate the situation further," a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told UNB on Sunday.
Bangladesh decided to close its border with India for any kind of movement except that of cargo on April 26 which was later extended till May 31 to control the spread of Coronavirus as the situation in the neighbouring country deteriorated.
The cross-border movement of people between Bangladesh and India has remained suspended since then.
Bangladesh confirmed its first case of the Indian Coronavirus variant on May 8 this year.
Lockdown in Chapainawabganj extended
The local administration has extended the ongoing lockdown in Chapainawabganj for another week due to the worsening Covid-19 situation.
The restriction will remain in force from June 1 to June 7, said Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Manjurul Hafiz at a press briefing at his office on Monday noon.
Read: Global Covid-19 cases cross 170 million mark
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s ongoing lockdown period has been extended another week until June 6 to control the virus.
Besides, district administrations have been given the authority to enforce lockdown in their areas if the Covid-19 situation deteriorates there, the cabinet secretary said on Monday.
Bank transaction hours from 10 am to 3 pm until June 6
Banks transaction hours have been extended further by half an hour as they will now operate from 10 am to 3 pm from May 31 to June 6.
Bangladesh Bank issued a circular on Sunday for all banks in compliance with the Cabinet Division’s latest directives on the countrywide restrictions to contain the Coronavirus transmission.
Read:Bangladesh extends lockdown until June 6
The banks can keep open offices until 4:30 pm to do their necessary activities, said the BB circular.
Currently, banks have been operating transactions from 10 am to 2:30 pm while in the normal situation they operate from 10 pm to 4 pm.
The BB circular said all other instructions will remain unchanged as per the circular of April 13.
In that circular it said banks can keep one non-AD branch open within 2km radius in the city corporation areas and at upazila level one branch of each bank can remain open on Thursday, Sunday and Tuesday.
Read:Covid-19 claims 38 more lives in Bangladesh; new cases 1,043
Banks have to take measures to provide transport facilities for the staff during the period.
The BB circular said during the banking transaction hours, banks have to ensure different kinds of services including clearing of cheques, withdrawal and deposits of money, money transfer, the release of remittance, encashment of different instruments and also receipt of the payments of bills of different utilities.
BB said banks have to continue services like disbursement of loans, incentives, payment of salaries of different industries and also the purchase of export bills, loan sanction and distribution.
Banks have to follow instructions in keeping the branches located in the port areas in discussion with the local administration and other authorities, as per the circular issued on August 5 last year, it said.
Read:Schools, colleges to reopen on June 13: Dipu Moni
Banks have to operate with limited staff under a roster system.
They have to ensure operation of ATM booths to facilitate transaction through cards by supplying adequate cash in the machines while the evening banking and weekly holiday banking activities will remain closed until further order, said the circular issued on April 13.
Bangladesh extends lockdown until June 6
The government has extended the ongoing lockdown by another week until June 6 as there has been no substantial improvement in the Covid-19 situation.
The Cabinet Division issued a circular in this regard on Sunday.
Read: Covid-19 claims 38 more lives in Bangladesh; new cases 1,043
Earlier, the government had extended the lockdown till May 30 after allowing public buses to run at half of their capacities in the country.
All concerned, including passengers, will have to maintain health protocols like wearing masks, said a circular issued on May 23.
Besides, hotels and restaurants will be allowed to keep open, also with half of their capacities.
Bangladesh extends lockdown until May 30
The government has extended the ongoing lockdown by another week until May 30 allowing public buses to run at half of their capacities considering the current coronavirus situation in the country.
The Cabinet Division issued a circular in this regard on Sunday.
All concerned, including passengers, will have to maintain health protocols like wearing masks, says the circular.
Besides, hotels and restaurants will be allowed to keep open with half of half of their capacities.
Read:Strict lockdown imposed in Teknaf and five Rohingya camps
The authorities concerned have been asked to take necessary steps in this regard.
As coronavirus cases kept growing at an alarming rate since mid-March, the government had imposed a ‘loose’ nationwide lockdown for one week from April 5 as part of its move to contain its spread.
Later, a ‘stricter’ lockdown was announced from April 14 to 21. Then the lockdown was extended several times considering the situation.
On April 23, the Cabinet Division issued a notice allowing shops and shopping malls to operate from April 25 (10am-5pm) on a condition that they would maintain safety protocols properly.
Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh logged 38 more coronavirus-related deaths in 24 hours till Saturday morning, taking the country's fatalities to 12,348.
The daily infection rate rose to 8.41% from Friday's 7.22%, said the Directorate General of Health Services.
Meanwhile, 1,028 new cases were reported after testing 12,230 samples.
Read: 3,350 Bangladeshis return through Benapole since Apr 26; 17 test Covid positive
Bangladesh reported 26 deaths on Friday after logging around 30 deaths for consecutive four days.
The fatality rate rose to 1.57% after remaining static at 1.56% for six days.
The recovery rate stood at 92.65% as 759 people recovered in the last 24 hours. The overall recovery number is 729,798 till date.
Bangladesh has so far reported 787,726 coronavirus cases.
Govt approves proposal to import Sinofarm vaccine
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved a proposal of the Health Service Division to import Sinofarm Covid-19 vaccine.
Dr Shahida Aktar, additional secretary to the Cabinet Division, disclosed this while briefing reporters after a meeting of the committee.
She, however, did not provide any detail about the price of the Chinese vaccine and its quantity. “It’s just an approval made in principle. Details of the proposal will be known when it’ll come again for approval of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase.”
Dr Shahida said the proposal was instantly placed on the table during the virtual meeting.
She said the CCEA approved another proposal of the Health Service Division to import 40 Oxygen generators to be used for the treatment of Covid patients.
Also read: Dhaka requests Delhi to send vaccine to Bangladesh soon
The Central Medicine Store Department (CMSD) will import the oxygen generators.
Another proposal made by the Industries Ministry received approval of the CCEA to sign a contract for the import of 1.28 million metric tons of fertiliser from three countries for the fiscal year 2021-2022.
Of the bulk fertiliser, 500,000 mt will be imported from Muntajar Qatar, 500,000 mt from Sabic of Saudi Arabia and 250,000 mt from Fertiglbe of the UAE.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase (CCPP) approved nine proposals, including the import of LNG and awarding a contract for installing a 400MW power plant to a Chinese contractor.
As per the proposal, state-owned Petrobangla will import 3.360 million MMBtu of (liquified natural gas) LNG from AOT Trading of Switzerland at a cost of Tk 340.62 crore -- $10.199 per unit.
Also read: Bangladesh to get 106,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine on June 2: Health Ministry
State-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will award an EPC contract to Chinese contractor SEPCO-III Electric Power Construction Company Ltd, at a cost of Tk 1,796.72 crore to set up a 400MW gas-fired power plant at Raozan Power Station in Chattogram.
The plant will be installed replacing the existing one.
A proposal of the Bangladesh Police received approval of the committee to award a contract Joint Venture of (1) Smart Technologies (BD) Ltd, Dhaka and (2) Digicon Technologies Ltd, Dhaka to introduce surveillance systems on Dhaka-Chattogram Highway.
Under the contract, the contractor will set up CCTV monitoring systems and other infrastructure on the highway.
Two other proposals of the Directorate General of Food (DGF) received approval of the CCPP.
Also read: Bangladesh seeks at least 2 mln doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from Canada
The DGF will award a Tk 261.70 contract to the Joint Venture of (1) Beximco Computers Limited, Bangladesh, (2) Bangladesh Export Import Company Ltd. Bangladesh, (3) Tech Mahindra Ltd. India, and (4) Tech Valley Networks Ltd. Bangladesh to install software, set up data centres and monitoring systems at all the food storehouses across the country under the package No-GD-27 of the “Modern Food Storage Facilities (MFSP)” project.
The DGF will award another contract of Tk 330.86 crore under the package No-W-21 of the same project to Joint Venture of (1) Confidence Infrastructure Limited, Bangladesh and (2) The GSI Group LLC, USA to set up a food steel silo for rice at Barisal.
Payra Port Authority’s tender proposal to award a Tk 5,629.18 crore contract to Jan De Nul (JDN), a Belgium-based dredging company, to conduct capital dredging and maintenance at the Rabonabad channel of the Payra Port received approval of the committee.
Another proposal of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) under the Shipping Ministry received approval of the CCPP to award a contract to Karnaphuli Ship Builders Ltd., to construct and supply four coastal passenger vessels at a cost of Tk 230.95 crore.
Bangladesh extends lockdown until May 23
The government has again extended the ongoing lockdown for another week until May 23 with two new directives alongside the existing ones to contain the spread of Covid-19.
The Cabinet Division issued a circular in this regard on Sunday.
On May 5, the government extended the countrywide lockdown until May 16.
Read:Covid-19: Ongoing lockdown to be extended until May 23
The circular said all the offices and agencies relating to revenue collection will be considered as emergency service providers.
Besides, restaurants and eateries will remain open with only takeaway/online services.
As coronavirus cases kept growing at an alarming rate since mid-March, the government had imposed a ‘loose’ nationwide lockdown for one week from April 5 as part of its move to contain its spread.
Later, a ‘stricter’ lockdown was announced from April 14 to 21. On April 28, the government again extended the lockdown until May 5 and issued six fresh directives as the country is struggling to contain the Covid-19 transmission.
On April 23, the Cabinet Division issued a notice allowing shops and shopping malls to operate from April 25 (10am-5pm) on a condition that they would maintain proper safety protocols.
Read:Return to Dhaka after lockdown ends: Mayor Taposh
Covid situation in Bangladesh
Covid-19 claimed 22 more lives in Bangladesh in 24 hours until Saturday morning, which was the lowest daily deaths in the country in nearly two months.
Bangladesh saw 26 Covid deaths on Friday and 31 on Thursday.
With the deaths logged on Friday, the official Covid-related death count in the country reached 12,124.
However, the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.55%, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Read:Covid-19: 22 more lives lost, lowest daily deaths in 7 weeks
Bangladesh witnessed a sharp drop in the number of new cases as the tests have declined dramatically.
Only 261 infections were logged in the 24-hour period after examining 3,758 samples.
The country also confirmed 779,796 Covid-19 cases in total, said a DGHS handout.
Officials asked not to leave workstations during Eid holidays
The government has issued a notification extending the ongoing lockdown until May 16 with six fresh directives alongside the existing ones to contain the spread of Covid-19.
According to the notification issued by the Cabinet Division, the officials of all government, semi-government autonomous and private organisations, banks and financial institutions have been asked to remain at their respective workstations during the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr holidays.
Also Read: Lockdown to continue until May 16, intra-district public transport services from May 6
Shops and shopping malls will remain open from 10 am to 8 pm maintaining health guidelines. If any kind of deviation and violation are seen, the shopping malls and shops will be closed instantly, says the notification.
Inter-district transport services will remain closed while only intra-district transport services will operate ensuring health guidelines from Thursday.
However, launch and train services will remain off.
The notification says hundred percent use of masks should be ensured and legal steps can be taken through mobile courts, if needed.
All social, political and religious programmes that create public gatherings will not be allowed to be arranged during this period.
Also Read: Extended lockdown extends daily bottlenecks for commuters
The Ministry of Information, city corporations/municipalities concerned will make publicity using loudhailers on using masks, maintaining health guidelines and social distance in district headquarters and municipality areas to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Earlier, on May 3, the government decided to extend the ongoing lockdown up to May 16.
The decision was taken at the weekly cabinet meeting held with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
As coronavirus cases keep growing at an alarming rate since mid-March, the government imposed a ‘loose’ nationwide lockdown for one week from April 5 as part of its move to contain its spread.
Also Read: Police seize four buses for violating lockdown norms in Jashore
Later, a ‘stricter’ lockdown was declared from April 14 to 21. On April 28, the government again extended the lockdown until May 5 as the country is struggling to contain the Covid-19 transmission.
On April 23, the Cabinet Division issued a notice allowing shops and shopping malls to operate from April 25 (10am-5pm) on the condition that they would maintain proper safety protocols.
10 named for Independence Award 2021
The government has picked nine individuals and one institution for "Swadhinata Padak 2021" (Independence Award), the highest civilian award, for their outstanding contributions to the country.
Bangladesh to get Covid vaccine on priority basis: Cabinet
The Cabinet on Wednesday expressed the hope that Bangladesh will get the Covid-19 vaccine on priority basis, once it is ready, as the government is in touch with all the countries and organisations trying to develop it.
Govt to prepare master plan for roads, highways
The government will prepare a master plan for roads and highways to ensure proper design and quality in construction.