Bangladesh troops enforce strict lockdown after surge in COVID-19 deaths

Police officers check commuters at a checkpost during a countrywide lockdown in Dhaka on Thursday. (Reuters)

DHAKA: Bangladesh has deployed troops to enforce a strict lockdown imposed on Thursday amid a deadly resurgence of coronavirus infections across the country.
The week-long shutdown is a response to what the government said was an “alarming” rise in COVID-19 cases, with the country’s virus positivity rate exceeding 25 percent on Wednesday and after a nearly fourfold rise in single-day deaths since the beginning of the month.
Under lockdown rules, people are confined to their homes except for emergencies, to buy essentials, or for vaccination. Markets and roadside stalls are closed. Makeshift mobile courts will hand out on the spot sentences to those violating the restrictions.
“Seventy-six units of our team are patrolling today in different streets of the capital, they will perform duties from dawn to dusk,” said Lt. Col. Abdullah Bin Jayed, director of the military’s media wing. “District administrations around the country were given magistracy power to conduct patrolling and enforce the lockdown. Our members are ready to perform anywhere as asked by the civil administration.”
In Dhaka, dozens of people were arrested on the first day of restrictions, police said. Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, Mohammad Shafiqul Islam, told reporters that police were ready to “arrest 5,000 people or more a day, if needed.”
While authorities are using the lockdown to curb the surge, which has been blamed mainly on the highly contagious delta variant first reported in neighboring India, health experts said a week of restrictions may be insufficient.
“The ongoing lockdown will help a lot to restrict the current spread of COVID-19 in the country. But a one-week lockdown will not be effective enough. To bring a desired result it should be extended up to two weeks,” virologist and public health expert Prof. Nazrul Islam told Arab News. “Authorities also need to ensure isolation, quarantine and necessary treatment for the people who are infected with the virus. For this, we should also increase the number of tests as much as possible.”
The South Asian nation of 168 million has reported more than 913,000 infections and 14,500 virus deaths, but its actual toll is believed to be much higher due to underreporting.