The Public Administration Ministry issued a notification in this regard.

“The government extended the holidays from April 15 to April 23, while April 24 and 25 are the weekend,” said Public Administration Secretary Shaikh Yusuf Harun.

The notification also instructed all citizens of the country not to come out of home after 6pm and if anyone defies this will be brought under legal action. Moving from one area to other is also restricted strictly, it said.

 On March 23, the government declared general holidays from March 26 to April 4, aiming to prevent the transmission of coronavirus and then extended the holidays until April 9. The April 12 and 14 was declared holidays with the holiday of April 14, the first day of Bengali New Year.

But kitchen markets, food shops, pharmacies, hospitals and all emergency services will remain out of the purview of the general holidays.  Earlier, the government closed all the educational institutions to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Meanwhile, rail, road, river and air communications have been shut down to prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus.

Bangladesh on Friday reported new 94 new cases and six more deaths from coronavirus.

The total confirmed cases in the country is now 424 and 27 deaths were reported from coronavirus as of Friday.

Meanwhile, the global death toll from coronavirus reached 95,794 as of Friday.

There have been 1,607,595 confirmed cases around the world after the highly contagious disease was first reported in China in December last year, according to worldometer.

The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on March 11.