The government currently has no intention or plan to impose another lockdown to combat a second wave Covid-19 pandemic.
They will, instead, make a decision after observing the situation, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said while speaking to reporters after an inter-ministerial meeting at the Secretariat in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The government plans to introduce a massive awareness campaign before the emergence of the second wave of Covid-19, he said.
“The decision regarding the reopening of educational institutions will be made after observing the situation. But the economic flow of the country will remain uninterrupted,” Anwarul told reporters.
The cabinet secretary also said every ministry must submit their work plan within one week on how they plan to tackle the second wave of Covid-19.
“It is not certain whether the second wave of Covid-19 is coming or not, but we are taking preparations, nonetheless. So, we have set our work plan today. Number one priority is the clinical part. If Covid-19 outbreak takes place again, what will be the role of the health sector?
“Secondly, we are assuming that the second wave will come in winter, so asthma and some other seasonal disease treatment policy has also been discussed.
“And thirdly, everyone has to wear masks in public places. We are going to initiate a massive awareness campaign about wearing masks and we will take action against those who fail to do so,” said the cabinet secretary regarding the meeting.
He also said that the government is going to take a major initiative to test everyone coming from abroad, so that Covid-19 infection cannot enter the country from outside. Armed forces division will take care of this process in all airports.
Principal Staff Officer of Armed Forces Division (AFD) Lt Gen Md Mahfuzur Rahman said: “When we were at the peak of Covid-19, we had 3,500 person capacity for institutional quarantine, but we have noticed that, Covid-19 positive cases usually do not exceed more than 1,500 person for institutional quarantine.
So, we have decreased the number of institutional quarantine capacity and fixed it for 2,000 people, but if the number of Covid-19 affected people increases in the upcoming days, then we will maximize our capacity.”
Responding to a question, he also said: “People having Covid-19 negative certificates from abroad will not need to go for institutional quarantine. But if they have symptoms of Covid-19 positive, we will quarantine them.”
