The fresh 11-point restrictions on overall public movement and business activities aimed at containing the Covid-19 outbreak will come into effect today amid widespread violation of health rules and rising cases of Omicron variant in the country.
The government is going to impose restrictions keeping all public and private offices open while educational institutions, tourist spots, different fairs and festivals will also remain open.
The restrictions are being imposed at a time when elections to local government bodies are also being held in places across the country.
Without increasing fares, launches will start running at half capacity from today while the buses and trains will start following the order from Saturday.
Public health experts doubted the success of the fresh restrictions unless there was proper coordination among the authorities concerned.
After a steady surge in Covid cases over the past two weeks, the Directorate General of Health Services on Wednesday warned that the disease would spread even faster in the coming days.
The DHGS reported 2,916 new cases on the day, which was 11.68 per cent of the total 24,964 samples tested.
The daily test positivity rate is the highest since August 31, when 12 per cent of samples tested Covid positive.
In March 2020, the government imposed a complete shutdown for over two months and later the government imposed period and area-based restrictions on overall activities and movement in April 2021. The restrictions were lifted in August.
Currently, in-person works are going on in all government and almost in every private office while academic activities, including in-person classes, are also going on at the educational institutions.
People are thronging different tourist destinations across the country during the vacation season.
Elections to Narayanganj City Corporation are scheduled to be held on January 16 while the sixth phase and seventh phase elections to several hundred union parishads are scheduled for January 31 and February 7 respectively.
In the capital, the Dhaka International Trade Fair is continuing and the 20th Dhaka International Film Festival will begin on January 15.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board on Wednesday announced that the eighth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 tournament would start on January 21.
Against the backdrop, the government on Monday issued 11 guidelines, including mandatory use of facemask and ban on rallies and public gatherings for social, religious and political purposes.
Professor Mohammad Shahidullah, chairman of the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19, told New Age on Wednesday that it would be a challenge to implement the 11-point guidelines.
‘We don’t know it yet how it will be monitored if the transports carry passengers at half their capacity or not,’ he said, adding that coordination among authorities concerned is a must for successful implementation of the restrictions.
As per Monday’s order, international travellers arriving in Bangladesh must have a vaccination certificate and undergo a rapid antigen test and a mask has to be worn at all public places, including shops, shopping malls, hotels, restaurants and markets, and the violators of the order will be punished in accordance with the law.
The order said that trains, bus and launches may operate at half their capacity while the drivers and their assistants in vehicles must be vaccinated.
Customers at restaurants and hotels must produce a vaccine certificate in order to avail services, according to the order.
Unvaccinated students above 12 years will not be allowed to enter educational institutions after a deadline to be fixed by the education ministry, the order said.
Ordering increased screening at all ports, the guidelines banned the disembarkation of ship crews.
Lorry drivers arriving at land ports will not be allowed to have assistants, the order said, adding that international travellers cannot be accompanied by visitors on airport premises.
Authorities will take steps to encourage people to follow health guidelines and get vaccinated and booster doses, the order said.
Local administrations have been empowered to take action in special situations in their localities.
The government also ordered mobile court operations against the violation of some of the guidelines such as wearing facemask outdoors.
The need for fresh restrictions became inevitable following manifold rise in Covid cases since December 11, the day the first Omicron cases were announced, amid widespread violation of health guidelines, health experts said.
Rashid-E-Mahbub, chairman of the National Committee on Health Rights Movement and former Bangladesh Medical Association president, told New Age that the restrictions were unlikely to be effective.
‘People are asked to follow the restrictions by keeping everything, like the trade fair, open,’ he said fearing that the coronavirus infection would increase in coming days.
‘There is still no mechanism to implement these restrictions,’ he said, urging the government to make people aware of health regulations and restrictions.
Professor Md Sayedur Rahman of the pharmacology department at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital said that the government should target giving booster doses to around one crore elderly people immediately.
‘Simultaneously, the government should close the schools for two weeks to give the first dose of vaccines to the remaining 75 lakh students aged under 18 years,’ he said.
The government should distribute crores of masks to people as the mask is the only weapon to prevent Omicron while the vaccines are the lifesavers, he said.
Terming the previous restrictions unsuccessful, he said that the government should prioritise the above three actions for preventing the spread of Omicron.
Abu Jamil Faisal, a public health expert, also insisted that the previous restrictions were not successful.
No clear guideline for implementation of the restrictions, lack of coordination between the health ministry and some other ministries including – public administration, home and information – and no coordination among all the stakeholders concerned were the reasons for the failure of the earlier restrictions, said Faisal, a member of the health directorate’s advisory group.
‘If these cannot be done the Covid cases will rise this time too,’ he said, adding, ‘people are not following the health regulations and there is no system in place to make them follow health rules.’
It was not rational at all to carry passengers at half capacity in public transports as this would cause suffering to people, he said, adding that many buses might stay out of monitoring and they might also illegally hike fare, he added.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder told reporters after a meeting on Wednesday that the buses would start running at half of their capacity from Saturday without increasing the fare.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority chairman Commodore Golam Sadeque confirmed New Age that the launches would start running at half of their capacity from today without a fare increase.
They also sent a proposal to the shipping ministry to allow the launches to take passengers on all seats following health regulations, he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Bangladesh Railway issued a six-point directive on train services, saying that from January 15 trains would carry passengers at their half capacities.
