Compounding the very real worries of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has gripped Bangladesh and the whole world, is the fact that there remains a tremendous amount of confusion, misinformation, and unfounded speculation about the spread of coronavirus and the government’s policies to fight it.
A very large part of the problem has stemmed from the government declaring a “general holiday” in red zones rather than calling it a lockdown. Calling it a holiday rather than a lockdown not only reduces the gravity of the matter, it sends the very opposite message, giving the impression that people are free to do as they wish.
This is, in fact, an unprecedented time where stringent measures need to be observed and enforced to the letter while organizations continue work and other productive activities from home.
We should have learned our lesson the first time around, when declaring a general holiday resulted in many people flagrantly disregarding any stay-at-home or social distancing guidelines. Many took the time as an opportunity to go to their homes in different cities to be with their families, greatly increasing the risk of the rapid spread of infection.
Bangladesh, after getting off to a reasonably good start, is now, sadly, one of the top countries in the world in terms of transmission. We have, unfortunately, failed to learn from the mistakes of other countries who failed to impose an early lockdown early on. Not only that, but we are also repeating our mistake the second time around.
We should have learned by now that simply suggesting that people stay at home and observe precautions will not work, the lockdown needs to be enforced.
Along with that, social safety measures need to be in place so that no one starves in this trying time. This is a crisis like no other, so the solutions may also need to be unprecedented.