Zone-based lockdown likely from today

Reporter Name

Update Time : Sunday, June 7, 2020
132 Time View

The country is likely to experience ‘zone-based’ fresh lockdown soon as the cases of coronavirus infections are on the rise. The initiative may be effective tentatively at Dhaka city’s Wari and Razabazar areas today. Health Ministry sources confirmed it on Saturday.

State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain on Saturday said that areas with 30 infections out of 100,000 people would be designated as ‘Red Zones’.

Outside the capital, areas with ten confirmed cases out of 100,000 people would be categorized as ‘Red Zones’. For areas that have three to 19 cases out of 100,000 people would be categorized as ‘Yellow Zones’ and areas with even fewer cases would be marked as ‘Green Zones’.

The Home Minister, the Health Minister, the LGRD Minister, the State Minister for ICT, the State Minister for Public Administration held a meeting on Saturday and finalized a proposal in this regard. The proposal will be sent to the Prime Minister today (Sunday), added Farhad Hossain.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque said last week that the government was considering zone-based lockdown across the country. The virus-hit areas would be divided into three zones– Red, Yellow and Green.

He said this after a meeting with a good number of ministers at the secretariat. As per the decision of the government, the Red zones will be put under total lockdown. It means none will be allowed to enter and go out of these zones.

Dhaka city is a hotspot for the spread of the deadly coronavirus. It has recorded the highest number of infections and deaths. Mirpur, Razabazar and different areas in the older part of Dhaka have so far reported most cases.Meanwhile, the killer virus has taken the lives of 35 more people and infected 2,635 others. With the update, the body count now stands at 846 and the tally of infections has altogether reached 63,026.

Professor Dr Nasima Sultana, additional director general of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) disclosed it at a regular media briefing in the capital on Saturday.She said, ” As many as 12,486 samples were tested in 50 authorized labs throughout the country in the past 24 hours. Of them, 2,635 were found to be coronavirus positive.”

Of the fresh 35 deaths, 28 were male and seven female, she said adding that 20 were from Dhaka division, eight from Chattogram, two from Sylhet, three from Rajshahi and the other two were from Barishal division.

As per age categories, two were between 11-20 years old, three between 21-30, two between 31-40, three within 41-50, 10 within 51-60, five between 61-70, nine were 71-80 and another was 81-90 years old, Professor Nasima Sultana added.

She said, ”A total of 521 more patients have made recoveries since Friday hiking the total to 13,325. The recovery rate now stands at 21.14 percent and the death rate reaches 1.34 percent.”

Coronavirus has spread to all 64 districts in Bangladesh. The country reported its first case of the virus on March 8, with the first death being recorded on March 18. The killer virus, which broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year, has so far killed at least 399,000 people across the globe. It has infected more than 6,885,000 people in 213 countries and territories.

The US is the worst-hit country with at least 111,400 deaths and more than 1,967,000 infections. Brazil has the second highest number of infections with 646,000 cases. The country has so far counted at least 35,000 deaths. Russia has counted 458,000 infections and 5,700 deaths.

The UK has recorded at least 40,400 deaths, the highest in Europe, followed by Italy with at least 33,700 casualties. France has lost at least 29,100 people followed by Spain with at least 27,100 casualties. Belgium has so far reported more than 9,500 deaths, followed by Germany with no fewer than 8,700 deaths while Iran has counted at least 8,200 casualties.

Canada has lost at least 7,700 citizens followed by the Netherlands with at least 6,000 casualties. China, the epicenter of the virus, has so far recoded as many as 4,600 deaths. India has counted at least 6,600 deaths with more than 239,000 infections.

Pakistan has so far reported 1,900 deaths and no fewer than 93,000 infections. Sri Lanka has reported only 11 deaths and 1,810 infections.The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the COVID-19 a pandemic. The outbreak of the virus has brought almost the entire world to a standstill.