Sayed Mostak Ahmed
The coronavirus emerged in Wuhan in China in August of 2019, and later it spread globally. Bangladesh identified the first three coronavirus infected patients on March 8. And since then, the government started adopting a number of activities to curb the outbreak of this virus.
In the beginning, people were worried and panicked as there was no solid information. Later, the government involved different private hospitals – alongside the public ones - to control the outbreak after it went out of control. Moreover, the government also announced general holidays across the country. Also, the government took other decisions like providing incentives, distribution of foods, masks, and hand sanitizers.
Similarly, to prevent the second wave, the government has imposed a lockdown on April 5 for seven days. But it backfired. Violence and anarchy spread across the country by the businessmen demanding the withdrawal of the lockdown.
However, the health experts believe that there are no alternatives of lockdown to curb the outbreak of coronavirus. The death rate and rate of infection are rising every day.
The government, however, also informed that the shops and shopping malls will remain open from 9 am – 5 pm following strict health guidelines. But the businessmen did not accept the decision and endangering the commoners. Moreover, there is a crisis of ICU beds across the country.
The more the government is taking measures to protect people, the more the people are ignoring the measures. The people are not following the directives.
But the lockdown of the last year did not witness any such careless incidents from the people. Also, there were not strict measures in the lockdown. Visiting different parts of the country, it was found that vehicles were moving randomly. Nobody is following the lockdown directives and spending time carelessly in public places.
The citizens say that there has been some disorder. Many of the people are moving out for no reason using the movement pass. They think that the movement passes are issued without verification which is causing the disorder.
Police are in trouble to handle the movement pass requests. More than 16 crore citizens have applied for the movement pass using its website. It is also have slowed down the process.
Many of the applicants see time-out messages from the website.
Sohel Rana, additional inspector general of police (media) said that the process slowed down as many people are entering the website together.
Benazir Ahmed, inspector general of police, inaugurated the website on April 14.
Meanwhile, many of the vehicles
were plying on the streets using different stickers and signs like police, lawyer, journalist, and doctor.
The number of deaths have crossed the 10,000 mark in the country. A strict lockdown is underway. But the people are indifferent. They are moving across the streets using the movement pass. But the country experienced a stricter lockdown last year.
People are reluctant to abide by the lockdown. No one will abide by it if the factories remain open.
Public health experts say that if people do not follow the lockdown directives, we may not get the right result of this lockdown. The rate of death and infection may not reduce as expected.
Professor Ridwanur Rahman said that people will not stay at home if you say it is lockdown. People should be forced to stay home. Otherwise, there are no benefits.
They also have suggested extending the lockdown periods. The health experts are on the view that the government should impose a two-week lockdown to control everything.
Everyone should follow the health directives, ensure social distancing and abide by other rules. Then, the population could be protected from the second wave of coronavirus.
