The government led by Awami League has passed almost the whole of 2020 combating the worldwide pandemic Covid-19, which hit Bangladesh in March.
3 term Prime Minister of Bangladesh and President of Awami League, Sheikh Hasina herself steered around daunting new challenges posed by the pandemic.
During the same time, the premier also managed the government activities as well as looked after party members across the country.
To combat Covid-19, the premier formed a combined cell with all secretaries of ministries and distributed responsibilities of each and every district to them to carry out directives given by the Prime Minister's Office.
Apart from the government, Awami League as a party and its associated bodies also formed similar committees from top to grassroots levels.
Among the major achievements of the government in 2020, the installation of the last span of Padma Bridge stands out.
Relocating a good number of Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char is also one remarkable achievement of the government.
During this pandemic BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was released from jail considering her physical ailments and she is staying in her own house, this decision of the government has been praised by many across the country and internationally.
Lockdown to combat coronavirus spread
The first Covid-19 case was recorded in Bangladesh in March when the country was preparing to celebrate Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary.
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the government postponed all physical programs like seminars, symposiums, mass rallies, and shifted them largely to virtual programs, except a fireworks display on March 17, the beginning of Mujib Year.
On March 23, due to Covid-19, the government declared a 10-day nationwide holiday from March 26 to April 4, shutting down public and private offices except for essential and healthcare facilities.
The “lockdown” was extended multiple times till May 30.
From June or July officials started to work from home, later from August 1, government officials started to physically attend office. Some private offices are still maintaining “home offices” as the second wave of Covid-19 is spreading across the country.
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, all government offices of Bangladesh remained closed from March 26 to May 31, except for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina tackled the first wave of Covid-19 from her official residence Ganabhaban and the PMO officials attended their office regularly following the premier’s instructions, according to the Annual Report (2019-2020) of the PMO.
During the pandemic, video conferences were organized under the supervision of the Prime Minister's Office with every department and district of the country to establish direct connection and exchange of views with the root level people.
Responding to Dhaka Tribune, State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury said: “During this pandemic it has been proved that Bangladesh would have been isolated from the world without technology. This is the merit of Digital Bangladesh.”
He also added: “Amid the pandemic, the country’s largest economic hub - Chittagong port - was never closed for a single day.”
At the same time during this pandemic the government arranged some national and local level elections which have been highly criticized.
Government assistances
Due to the pandemic, the government for the first time introduced people with words like quarantine, isolate, work from home, shutdown, lockdown, red zone, green zone, yellow zone, no mask no service.
Despite all of the measures, according to Worldometer, since December 30 Bangladesh faced a total of 511,261 coronavirus cases, among them 454,563 recovered and 7,509 died.
“More than 50,050 political leaders across the country died of Covid-19 till December 30,” Sayem Khan the deputy office secretary of Awami League confirmed this data to Dhaka Tribune.
Ex minister and presidium member of Awami League Mohammad Nasim, State Minister for Religious Affairs Ministry Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, former mayor of Sylhet and executive member of Awami League Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran, former minister AKM Zahangir, Awami League advisory council’s member Maqbul Hossain are notable among them.
Leaders and activists of Awami League did not stop their activities amidst the pandemic.
According to the Awami League office, they provided food assistance to 12,508,000 people, and disbursed Tk105,280,000 as cash-aid among needy people across the country.
The Annual Report (2019-2020) of the Prime Minister office (PMO) reads that the government had disbursed an economic package of more than Tk112,633 crore to 21 sectors of industry and commerce amid the pandemic.
Apart from that, 50,00000 jobless temporary workers got financial aid through mobile banking during this year.