Lockdown if Covid restrictions violated: Zahid

Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Saturday warned of enforcing another lockdown in the country if the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions are violated.

The warning comes at a time when the country is witnessing an upsurge of Covid infections, coupled with highly contagious new variant Omicron.

“The Covid infections are on the rise at an alarming rate. The situation in the country will be dire if the 11-point restrictions imposed by the government are not complied with,” he said while addressing a programme in Manikganj.

The minister inaugurated the dialysis unit along with a CT scan machine at the Manikganj 250-bed General Hospital.

Mentioning that the country will suffer a lot if the lockdown is imposed, Zahid Maleque said, “The government does not want to walk on that path.”

He, however, urged all to abide by the health guidelines.

With a view to choke the transmission of Covid cases, the government imposed fresh 11-point restrictions that took effect from January 13. The restrictions will remain in place until further notice.

On Friday, Bangladesh registered 4,378 Covid cases in the last 24 hours while the daily infection rate rose to 14.66 percent.

With the new cases, the total caseload reached 16,09,042, according to the daily virus update by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The country also logged six more deaths over the same period, pushing the tally up to 28,129.