Staff-Reporter: The government on Saturday decided to impose a week-long nationwide lockdown from Monday to combat COVID-19 spread. On Friday logged 6,830 new cases of the coronavirus, the highest count in a day. Bangladesh registered a massive jump in new Covid-19 cases for few days.

State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain made the remarks in a video message from his home on Saturday (April 3rd) at noon.

Asked what will be closed in the lockdown, the state minister for public administration said, " As COVID-19 cases and deaths surged across the country, the government has decided to enforce a seven-day lockdown from Monday. Our emergency services such as DC office, UNO office, fire service, disaster management office, newspapers will remain open."

"We want to limit the movement of people," he said.

The state minister said the factories would remain open during the lockdown. If the factories are closed, people from the more infected districts will go home. This will increase the number of infections in other districts.

He also said that government and private offices will be closed in the lockdown. Courts and all kinds of markets will be closed.

Asked whether public transport will be closed in the lockdown, the state minister for public administration said, "We are working on these." When the notification will be issued in this regard, it will be clearly mentioned there. There will be a notification this evening.

Asked when the lockdown will start, the state minister said the issue would be mentioned in the notification.

Sun News