Zone-wise lockdown has been a much-discussed topic across Bangladesh for a while now, particularly since the nationwide general holiday to contain Covid-19 transmission came to an end on May 31, though with some restrictions still in place.
But the country’s overall situation is still a cause for grave concern, as the upward trend of new cases and deaths continues.
On Monday, Bangladesh reached its 100th day of Covid-19, with over 90,000 confirmed cases since its first detection on March 8, and more than 1,200 deaths since the first was reported on March 18.
As part of its latest measures in responding to Covid-19, the government decided to split the country into three zones – red, yellow and green – based on the severity of infections in any given area.
On Saturday, the National Technical Advisory Committee (NTAC), formed by the government to tackle the Covid-19 crisis, said it had identified 64 areas across Bangladesh – 45 of which are in Dhaka alone – as red zones where the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases happen to be high.
But NTAC officials say these zones have been marked on a broad scale, and work on pinpointing the exact areas that require lockdown is still in progress.
In such circumstances, the government on Monday extended the ongoing restrictions on public movement till June 30.
During this period, all offices, businesses and banks in areas to be flagged as red zones will remain closed, and only essential services will be allowed to be open. Yellow zones will see activities on a limited scale while the situation will be more relaxed in the green zones, according to a notification by the Cabinet Division issued on Monday.
But as the areas to face the restrictions – especially in the red zones – have yet to be determined, the confusion among people remains.
How will the lockdown work?
According to the guidelines issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), those areas in Dhaka city will be declared red zones where more than 60 confirmed cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 people will have been detected in the preceding 14 days.
In other districts, areas with more than 10 confirmed cases per 100,000 people during the same period of time will be declared red zones.
According to the primary mapping done by the NTAC, there are 45 areas in Dhaka, 10 in Chittagong, 4 in Narayanganj and 5 in Gazipur that pose the highest risk of Covid-19 transmission – or are in the red zone – and need lockdown.
In Dhaka, the Dhaka North City Corporation has 17 such areas, while the Dhaka South City Corporation has 28.
However, the red zones will not be entirely locked down. Indeed, the clusters within the zones, based on case severity, will be identified and put under lockdown.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) is working on specifying these areas.
“Say, for example, there are five wards in Mohammadpur, but the DGHS has to narrow it down to the areas within those wards where Covid-19 cases are higher. The more specific the location is, the easier it is to manage [the lockdown],” DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam explained.
Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), echoed the views of the Mayor.
“We also have to keep in mind the life and livelihood of residents in these areas,” she told Dhaka Tribune. “While we work to contain the Covid-19 response, we also need to keep economic activities going. So, the lockdown will be in place in smaller localities of a broader area, instead of an area as a whole.”
Once the mapping is done, the lockdown will be imposed on those specific areas for 21 days, during which time all non-essential activities will remain suspended, working from home will be implemented, only pharmacies and local groceries will be allowed to remain open, and no movement via rickshaws, CNG-run autorickshaws and private transport will be allowed.
In Dhaka, the lockdown will be implemented by the city corporation authorities. In the other districts, the district administrations will enforce it.
According to the notification by the Cabinet Division, lockdown must be implemented following a standard operation procedure (SOP) to ensure all services for the residents of the locked down areas.
The locked down areas must have Covid-19 testing facilities, Covid and non-Covid health services, quarantine and isolation centres, ambulance services and relief and home delivery services.
What is causing the delay?
Specific mapping is proving to be difficult, largely because of how the contact information is collected from those who give samples for Covid-19 testing.
Most people, while delivering their samples at different laboratories and sample collection booths, only mention the area of residence, not the full address, which makes it difficult for the authorities to pinpoint the exact neighbourhoods with Covid-19 patients for the mapping.
DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam said his office had received a list of 17 areas, signed by DGHS chief Abul Kalam Azad, but no official order or gazette had been issued on the implementation of the lockdown yet.
“We need the specific map. Once we receive it, it will take 48 to 72 hours to put the area under lockdown,” he said.
“A mapping or demarcation detailing the lists of houses where Covid-19 cases have been reported will be helpful. If not that, we need to know which localities, lanes, wards, etc, have higher numbers of cases than others, and they need proper mapping,” he added.
The mayor said he was waiting for a gazette notification detailing the areas to be put under lockdown.
Authorities turn to mobile tracking
When the issue of specific mapping was brought under the IEDCR director’s attention, she agreed that it was a major challenge.
“It is true that we don’t have detailed information on the people who have tested positive for Covid-19 so far,” Dr Flora, who is also member-secretary of the National Technical Advisory Committee, told Dhaka Tribune.
The IEDCR director said the authorities were now asking sample collectors to record the full addresses of Covid-19 suspects.
“We are also trying to use technology to do it now,” she added.
However, she failed to say how long it might take to finish the specific maps for lockdown areas.
Dr Dewan Muhammad Humayun Kabir, joint secretary and joint project director at Access to Information (a2i), which provides technical support, said: “The lack of full address is a challenge. But we have mobile numbers of all the suspected and confirmed cases. We have requested the authorities to see if the addresses can be figured out with support from the mobile phone companies using the contact numbers provided in the sample collection forms.
“We are now working on how the mapping can be done more easily so that the policymakers and the authorities can execute the plan in a hassle-free manner. The aim is to get maximum output through using limited resources,” Dr Kabir added.
He expects the mapping to be done within two or three days once all the data are collected.
Currently, a pilot zonal lockdown has been in place in East Rajabazar of Dhaka under DNCC since June 10.
DNCC ready to enforce lockdown, DSCC still working on it
The DNCC has already prepared a standard operating procedure (SOP) to execute the lockdown within its jurisdiction, as soon as the specific map of the cluster areas is provided by the DGHS.
The DNCC mayor attended separate virtual meetings with the DGHS, DNCC officials and councillors in this regard on Monday.
The DSCC has a coordination meeting scheduled on Tuesday at 2:30pm at Nagar Bhaban to discuss the same issue, said Abu Naser, public relations officer of DSCC.
“Representatives of the DGHS, police and other agencies concerned will attend the meeting,” he told Dhaka Tribune.
Other challenges
Officials at the DGHS, DSCC and DNCC said ensuring medical services for each area was also quite challenging. Designating isolation centres for each area is difficult as hospitals are not available in all neighbourhoods or “mohollas.”
Even multi-storeyed school buildings or community centres with open spaces were not available in most of the areas for isolation centres and quarantine centres to be set up, they said.
Setting up control rooms and managing ambulances round the clock in each locked down area is also challenging.
Ensuring campaign, monitoring and evaluation would be under consideration for a strict lockdown, they said.
