SC announces general holiday for court officials of red zones

The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday approved general holidays for all the employees and staff who reside in red zone areas amid the coronavirus pandemic, reports news agency UNB.

The SC issued a notice signed by registrar general Md. Ali Akbar in this regard.

The court employees of red zone will get general holiday but they cannot leave or move from their current accommodation, the notice said.

More than one magistrate will be working to operate emergency cases at chief judicial magistrate courts and metropolitan magistrate courts in district level.

The order will remain in action until further notice.

On Saturday, some areas of the country were marked as ‘red zones’ to contain the spread of coronavirus.

According to guidelines of Directorate General of Health Services of Bangladesh, an area could be identified as ‘red zone’ if 10 or more COVID-19 patients are found in every 100,000 people of any area except Dhaka metropolitan area within 14 consecutive days. The guidelines also said an area could be identified as ‘yellow zone’ if three to nine COVID-19 patients are found in every 100,000 people of any area except the Dhaka metro within previous 14 days.

In case of Dhaka metro, an area could be identified as red zone if 60 or more in every 100,000 people are tested positive for the novel virus in 14 consecutive days while ‘yellow zones’ are where the patient number within that time will be three to 59, the guidelines say.