Authorities including military forces are still struggling to ensure social distancing to contain the novel coronavirus-induced disease that has already spread to all but four districts across the country over a month.
Overcrowded kitchen markets, crowds at relief distributions and movement of people to and from the capital could not be prevented despite efforts amid the ban on public transports during the ongoing general holiday announced to ensure that people stayed at home.
The government has extended the public holiday for the fourth time on April 25, asking people to remain indoors till May 5.
Following the first detection of COVID-19 patient on March 8 in Narayanganj, the disease has claimed 140 lives, infecting 4,998 people so far as of Saturday, according to official statistics.
The Rapid Action Battalion’s newly appointed director general Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun on Saturday said the RAB’s executive magistrates conducted 358 mobile courts, panelising 2,140 people with Tk 3,40,72,450 for unnecessary movement between March 8 and April 24, violating shutdown directives.
He called on all to share information if any gathering was sighted in any locality violating social distancing norms while promising intensifying their patrolling to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The number of infections on March 26 was five, with the total infections only 39.
The number crossed 500 on April 24, and it took until April 7 to reach 100 COVID-19 patients in Bangladesh, when the virus spread to 15 districts.
On April 11, the infections spread to 31 and 35 on the next day and 44 districts on April 15 and 54 districts on April 20 and 60 districts on April 24, the statistics show.
‘You see how many patients increase in a day…if you don’t maintain healthy behavioural pattern to keep coronavirus infections at bay, we have to suffer a disastrous consequence,’ warned Directorate General of Health Services additional director general Nasima Sultana in the daily online bulletin on COVID-19 situation on Friday.
Still people were seen moving along roads and alleys and crowding kitchen markets in the city and elsewhere across the country ignoring the government instructions for maintaining social distancing to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.
The first day of Ramadan on Saturday witnessed a reversal of the lockdown scenario, especially at places with shoppers gathering at kitchen markets and the super shops in the morning.
The law enforcers were still struggling to make people stay at home and avoid unnecessary crowding at market places despite different penalty measures in Dhaka and elsewhere across the country since the beginning of the shutdown on March 26 to contain the novel coronavirus spread.
The authorities have relocated major kitchen markets in the capital and elsewhere to open spaces in an attempt to avoid overcrowding and ensure social distancing during the shutdown.
The move, however, hardly had any positive impact as scores of people rushed to such markets on the first day of Ramadan ignoring social distancing norms.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police officials said that it would be difficult to maintain safe gaps or social distancing if a huge number of people rush to the market places at once.
The kitchen market at Mirpur-6 was relocated recently, but the fish, meat and other grocery shops are still running in the previous congested area.
One of the shoppers, Shibly Noman, said that shops are mostly operating till 2.00pm, so people tend to buy within this limited time.
If market hours are extended, huge gathering might be avoided, he added.
The situation, however, changed after 2.00pm when police started to ask grocers, vendors and hawkers to shut down their shops across the city.
No street Iftar items shops or hawkers were allowed to avoid public gathering as novel coronavirus menace has hit the country badly, said police.
Lalbagh division deputy commissioner of police Muntasirul Islam said that the inspector general of police had instructed cops across the country that no hawkers and street food items would be allowed during this Ramadan and they were enforcing the instruction accordingly.
DMP mobile court officials said that on Friday around Tk 40,000 fines were collected from 61 people for wandering around.
Dhaka district administration data showed that around 1,300 people were fined for flouting the rules in the last one month.
The government was yet to finalise the list of how many mobile courts were conducted or people were fined on charges of violating physical distancing or shutdown directives.
Cabinet division joint secretary Sabirul Islam said they have the data on how many mobile courts were conducted in March but it did not specify how many of those were related to Covid19 shutdown.
The Inter-Services Public Relations stated that over three services including 7,000 army personnel were working in 62 districts
Meanwhile, a group of RMG worker blocked the Badda area demanding their due wages. Around 50 workers blocked the road at Badda U-loop around 10:30am on Saturday.
Badda police sub-inspector Shafiqul Islam said a garment factory named ‘lightcom’ is yet to pay three months’ salary to workers and they came out on the road in protest.
‘Later after a talk they have been removed from the road and later they staged the protest in front of the garment factory,’ he added.
The local administration has brought at least 40 districts under complete lockdown while 16 under partial lockdown out of 64 so far, according to the disaster and relief ministry’s data.
The government on March 23 ordered deployment of military forces in aid to the civil administration to ensure social distancing across the country for containing the spread of COVID-19.-New Age
