Bangladesh extends nationwide lockdown till May 16, confirmed cases cross 10,000

Bangladesh on Monday extended the nationwide lockdown till May 16 to contain the deadly coronavirus as the number of cases crossed the 10,000-mark in the country.

The Ministry of Public Administration announced the government's decision in a gazette notification, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

The government initially declared a general holiday on March 26 for 10 days. Later, that was gradually extended till April 25 as the country kept seeing a rise in the number of cases and deaths from COVID-19. Bangladesh later extended the nationwide shutdown until May 5.

The number of coronavirus cases in Bangladesh reached 10,143 after 688 new cases were detected in the last 24 hours. So far, 182 people have died due to the disease, bdnews24.com reported.

A total of 1,209 people have recovered from the disease.

According to the notification, people must strictly follow the health guidelines issued by the Health Service Division.

Readymade garments, pharmaceutical, and export-oriented industries are allowed to open if they follow social distancing measures and government guidelines, it said.

Ministries and other affiliated offices can also operate if necessary, the Dhaka Tribune report said.

Keeping in mind the upcoming festival of Eid-ul-Fitr, shops and malls are allowed to open till 5 pm in a limited manner with all the social distancing measures in place, it said.

However, inter-district travel has been stopped to discourage people from visiting their homes for the festival in the Muslim majority nation.

Emergency services like food, medicine and other daily use items remain out of the purview of the shutdown, it said.