Lockdown, emergency work must not be hampered

The entire country is under an unofficial lockdown to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. We have been saying from the beginning that social distancing is the most effective way to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection that took more than 24,000 lives across the world.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on the occasion of independence day urged all to stay home to contain the infection.

The government ordered public transport and water transport, including inter-district transport, to b halted from Thursday. Flights are limited. Government and private offices, educational institutions and courts have also been closed. However, kitchen markets, general stores selling essentials, and drugstores will remain open.

The army has been deployed to help the civil administration enforce the government’s decision. Thousands of people left Dhaka after the government announced 10-days holiday. The manner in which they crowded public transport to go home may spread the virus further across the country.

It is important to monitoring these people immediately. Besides the administration and law enforcement agencies, the local public representatives should also take up these tasks. The government has created corona prevention committees at the union parishad level. These committees must function properly.

Even the world’s most advanced and powerful nations are struggling to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. In some countries, hundreds of people are dying every day. We need to take into consideration the experiences of the countries that have been dealing with this situation from the beginning.

Many countries all over the world have taken the initiative of social isolation as in Bangladesh and thus are trying to prevent the transmission. India has declared a three-week lockdown. The biggest challenge ahead of us is to implement the two-week lockdown undertaken recently.

We hope the law enforcement agencies will perform their duties properly during the social isolation. Every citizen must be compelled to abide by the directives of the government.

However, the law enforcers need to be careful. During the lockdown, many emergency services are still operating. Banks, some factories, drug and food stores, hospitals and media will carry on with their regular duties. It is necessary to ensure that the employees of these organisations can carry out their duties freely and not face any kind of harassment.

However, besides the people involved in providing the services, the authorities must ensure free mobility of those who would need to avail take these services. Since the banks are open, customers will go to the banks.

People will have to go out to buy food and medicines. Everything must be tackled in a civilised manner. We hope that law enforcement officials will provide necessary guidance to those who work in the field.

At the same time, we urge the people to abide by the rules and stay home. This disaster must be dealt with the collective efforts and cooperation of all.