Dr. Shafi Bhuiyan, an internationally-recognised leader in global public health and education initiative, has suggested people to listen to health professionals only as confusing messages from unlimited sources are flooding the public domain amid global coronavirus pandemic.

The entire Dhaka city wore a deserted look as all shops except medicine stores were shut down by 7pm on Tuesday in compliance with a directive of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) to prevent the transmission of coronavirus.

As coronavirus crisis upended their livelihoods, tens of thousands of poor people and day-labourers in the capital are now worried about maintaining a roof over their heads as they are unable to pay house rents.

Police and Armed Forces members, the government’s frontline staff, are playing a proactive role in convincing people about government directives to maintain social distancing as well as home-quarantine by overseas returnees in a bid to curb the deadly coronavirus, apart from maintaining the law and order.

As the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, or IEDCR, announced the biggest daily spike in infected cases of COVID-19 in the country so far on Sunday, the break-up of the 88 cases identified so far revealed two potential hotspots  in capital Dhaka - Tolerbagh, a locale within the sprawl of Mirpur in the city’s north-west, and Basabo in the south-east.  

Low-income people, especially slum dwellers, who have been left with no work amid the nationwide shutdown aimed at curbing the coronavirus were seen waiting at different intersections of the city on Sunday in the hope of getting food and relief materials.

Bangladesh Railway is losing Tk 4-5 crore in revenue every day following the suspension of all train services across the country amid the coronavirus outbreak.   On March 24, the government suspended all the passenger train services throughout the country in an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Like many others, political leaders in Bangladesh are also stuck at their homes, but still they are trying to use their time in their confined spaces.

Uncertainty looms large over the invitation of a planned international bidding for hydrocarbon exploration in the country’s gas blocks due to the coronavirus impact on the global economy.

Amid the nosedive in revenue collection, export earnings and remittance inflow, economists fear a burgeoning of the budget deficit in the aftermath of the pandemic and the massive steps taken to tackle it.