60m mobile subscribers were on move amid pandemic: AMTOB

Tens of millions of people have travelled back and forth between cities and villages in Bangladesh during the coronavirus pandemic, raising the risk of contagion amid a worsening coronavirus epidemic, according to the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB).

The mobile operators’ association revealed the data for the last three months during a virtual press briefing over its reaction to the government's budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

AMTOB Secretary-General SM Farhad said: “According to our calculations, 40 per cent of subscribers travelled to and from cities.

Figures compiled by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission indicate that the combined customer base of the four mobile network operators in the country had reached around 160 million in March.

Taking this into account, an estimated 64 million mobile users travelled varying distances in and out of cities and villages over the last three months, according to AMTOB.

The estimate factors in cases individual users with more than one registered SIM, making it difficult to determine the actual number of frequent travellers during the pandemic.

Bangladesh enforced a nationwide shutdown at the end of March by ordering all offices, schools and public transport services to close while placing restrictions on public gatherings.

The government extended the shutdown in several spells as people swarmed the Kathalbari-Shimulia docks while the crisis escalated.

Apparel factories were allowed to reopen on a limited scale towards the end of April as people arrived en masse in Dhaka, Gazipur and other areas with industrial units from across the country. Following widespread criticism over the fiasco, the government backtracked on the decision to reopen factories forcing millions of workers to return to their hometowns.

In an effort to salvage the floundering economy, the government eventually reopened offices and allowed public transports to run at reduced capacities on May 31, though the ban on inter-district transports remained.

Bangladesh has registered 53 new fatalities from the novel coronavirus infection in a day, the most in a daily count, bringing the death toll to 1,262.

The tally of infections surged to 94,481 after 3,862 new cases, the steepest jump in a single day, were confirmed in the 24 hours to 8am Tuesday, according to the health directorate.

To curtail the spread of the disease, the government has moved to divide areas into colour-coded zones based on the prevalence of COVID-19. The virus hotspots, flagged as red zones, will have lockdown restrictions enforced while offices will remain open on a limited capacity in the yellow and green zones until Jun 30.