AMN/ WEB DESK
The government of Bangladesh has announced the lifting of the lockdown in the country from August 11 with certain restrictions remaining in place in view of the COVID 19 situation in the country. The Cabinet Division of the government of Bangladesh issued a notification on Sunday announcing the opening of shops, malls, offices, banks and financial institutions from 11 August after the current phase of the lockdown ends on Tuesday, August 10.
Shops and malls can open from 10 in the morning till 8 in the evening. Public transport including railways, roads and waterways will start operating from Wednesday, August 11. However, they will not carry more passengers than the available number of seats. The buses will carry passengers to the full capacity but only half of them will be operational on any given day.
Hotels and restaurants will remain open at half capacity.
Domestic and international flights are already operational in the country. All the factories and industries will continue to remain open.
There has been no announcement about the educational institutions which have been closed till August 31 by an earlier order of the government .
Bangladesh had announced a lockdown on April 5 which was extended from time to time in phases considering the COVID 19 situation in the country. The current phase of COVID 19 restrictions was imposed from July 23 after a week of relaxation between July 15-22 for the Eid-ul-Azha festival.
Even while Bangladesh launched a mass vaccination drive from Saturday with three million people being vaccinated in a day, the COVID situation in the country remains grim. On Sunday, 241 people died due to COVID 19 and 10,299 new cases were reported from the country. The sample positivity rate has shown a declining trend over the last few days. On Sunday, it stood at 24.52 percent, down from 26.25 percent on Saturday.