'10m mobile subscribers left Dhaka before lockdown'

People gather at the Kamalapur Railway Station to go home before the shutdown of all the public transports amid coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 24 March 2020.
Reuters

Around 10 million mobile subscribers left the capital city after the government declared 10-day general holidays to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the country from 26 March, reports UNB.

Ziaul Ahsan, director, National Telecom Monitoring Centre (NTMC), said 1.6 million of them are Banglalink subscribers, 4.6 million Grameenphone, 3.5 million Robi and 250,000 Teletalk users.

As the mobile users left Dhaka, their relatives and house helps also went to villages. So, the total number might be 15 to 20 million people who left the capital, he added.

“If someone of this huge population carries coronavirus, the situation might be devastating," he said.

Bangladesh closed all educational institutions on 17 March and declared a 10-day general holidays from 26 March.

The country also suspended public transport including train services to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Bangladesh on Saturday reported no new coronavirus case or death from the disease in the last 24 hours.

The death toll from novel coronavirus (COVID-19) reached 27,468 globally as of Saturday.

It has so far infected 602,172 people around the world, according to worldometer.