Dhaka: Bangladeshi army and police patrolling empty streets on Thursday due to strict Covid-19 weeks starting, with people limited to their homes except for emergencies and buying essentials.
The government has said the South Asian nation of 168 million people see a “worry and dangerous” increase “, blamed largely on a very contagious Delta variant.
Hospital struggles, especially in areas that are bordered by India where strains are first detected.
Some rural cities have recorded an infection rate of 70 percent.
On the first day of shutdown for a week, the streets of Dhaka were usually crowded when the army in military fatigue patrolled and arranged an examination post.
Police Chief Dhaka told reporters that anyone left home without good reason would be fined and may face arrest.
“If we need to submit 5,000 cases and catch a day, we will,” Shafiqul Islam said.
Shutdown announcement last week triggered an exodus of migrant workers from Dhaka, with thousands of cramming ferries that are packaged dangerous in Delta.
“We hope this difficult steps will succeed.
We have to load viruses at any cost,” said the Department of Health spokesman robed Amin to AFP.
But sagar, a 18-year-old street food seller in Dhaka, angry.
“The government imposes the lock only to kill poor people.
There will be no work for us, there is no help from anyone,” he told AFP.
All offices and stores are closed with only local food markets left open for a few hours a day.
Excluded is a garment factory that supplies Western giants such as H & M and Walmart.
This sector forms the main pillar of Bangladesh’s economy.
The stock market and commercial banks can also operate for several hours a day.
Touhidul Islam Chowdhury, who owns a small loan recovery company, said the closure must be “enforced roughly”.
“Many people are dying and infected,” he told AFP.
“Troops must be deployed much earlier.” Bangladesh has reported nearly 900,000 infections and only more than 14,500 deaths of viruses, but experts say that victims can actually be much higher because of underporting.
More than two-thirds of new cases in Dhaka are Delta variants, according to a recent study by Dhaka-based international center for diarrheal disease research.
Unlike the previous two waves, rustic heart where more than 60 percent of the life population has been hit, with reports that say local graves are overwhelmed.
In the Satchira district in the southwest, the authorities investigated media reports that seven Coronavirus patients died after the hospital was running out of oxygen, the official said Humayun Kabir told AFP.
The health authority said that while they would continue the country’s inoculation journey from Thursday.
Television recordings showed hundreds of people crowding top hospitals in Dhaka for vaccines.
The first ground phase that stopped after India stopped exporting the AstraZeneca vaccine earlier this year to focus on their own needs.
Bangladesh is expected to accept this weekend, the first delivery of 2.5 million modern vaccines promised by the United States.
An official of the Chinese Embassy said Beijing also sent around two million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine purchased by Dhaka, added 1.1 million shots that had been contributed by China.