Bangladesh extends general holiday till 16 May

The government of Bangladesh has extended the ongoing general holiday till 16 May in a bid to prevent the transmission of the deadly coronavirus.

The public administration ministry issued a gazette notification in this regard on Monday, saying various emergency services will remain out of the purview of the shutdown.

On 23 March, the government declared general holiday from 26 March to 4 April, aiming to protect people from being infected by the fast spreading virus as elsewhere in the world.

Later, the holidays were extended five times until 25 April – first from 5 April to 9 April, then from 10 April to 14 April, later from 15 April to 16 April, then again from 17 April to 25 April and finally from 25 April to 5 May.

However, a notification issued on 25 April also included directive that all the ministries, divisions and their subordinate offices involved in providing emergency services will remain open on limited scale during the extended general holidays.

On the same day, the public administration ministry, said government offices at division, district and upazila levels under 18 ministries and divisions will remain open on a limited scale.

Earlier, the government closed all the educational institutions apart from shutting down the rail, road, river and air transportaion to prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus.

Amid the high risk of coronavirus transmission, some garment factories reopened on 26 April and the garment factory owners claimed they are operating garment factories with the workers available in Dhaka on a limited scale maintaining hygiene issues

The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 212 countries and territories around the world.