A week ago, a crisis hit the family of Shahed Alam's best friend -- there was no donor available to donate blood for his pal's cancer-stricken father. After unsuccessfully knocking the doors of blood banks across the city for two days, Shahed finally decided to harness the power of social media on Saturday, but to no avail. "I have been trying hard to arrange blood for my friend's father -- a cancer patient admitted to Mohakhali Cancer Hospital -- since last week. But finding donors is turning out to be a Herculean task amid the nationwide lockdown. Due to strict movement restrictions and the fear of Covid, blood donors are just not stepping out of their homes," he told UNB. Yes, the Covid-19 lockdown has severely affected the movements of donors across the country, triggering a massive shortage of blood. Most blood banks in the capital as well as other parts of Bangladesh are running short of life-saving blood. "Blood donors are just reluctant to come out these days. And those who do are often subjected to grilling at police check posts across the city. This is because the Good Samaritans don't possess the mandatory movement passes, and convincing the sentry at a police check post is also a time-consuming affair," said another city resident. Also read: PCR machine reaches RMCH for COVID-19 test Bangladesh's annual demand for blood is around 8 lakh units. About 25% of the nation's annual blood requirement come from voluntary donation, 20–25% from paid donors, and 50–55% from one-time donation for a particular patient. But the country has seen a drastic fall in both voluntary and direct blood donations in recent weeks. The decline in blood donations has triggered a chain reaction -- plasma collection has been hit hard. Plasma is the liquid portion of blood that contains antibodies. Many countries have already allowed the use of plasma therapy to treat severely ill Covid patients. The therapy involves the use of plasma of recovered Covid patients as a potential treatment.

Kabir Ahmed Miazi, 65, was begging at Jatrabari area of the city amid the lockdown. He earned Tk80 from morning to afternoon on Friday. Earlier, he used to earn Tk300-500 on a normal day there. But the coronavirus hit his income hard as people didn’t go out due to the pandemic. Not only beggars but also cobblers, hawkers, home servants and day labourers are being affected vastly owing to lockdown in the country. Bangladesh government announced a lockdown from April 5-11 and extended it by one week up to April 20 due to increased COVID-19 infected cases in the country. Earlier, after the first coronavirus patient detection here on March 8, all education institutions were declared shut from March 17, 2020 in Bangladesh. The country went on general holiday from March 26 to May 30. However, the education institutions will be reopened on May 23, 2021. Read Bangladesh braces for ‘another weeklong lockdown’ “I came to Dhaka from Chandpur in 2003. We lost all properties due to river erosion then. After coming into the city, I used to pull a rickshaw. But I am forced to beg after a sudden disease. I have been begging several years to survive with my family,” he added. Kabir said the coronavirus hit his income hard as people don’t go out following the pandemic. “I have to take medicine regularly but I can’t purchase it properly due to financial crisis. I earned Tk300-Tk500 on a normal day but now I earn less than Tk100 following the Coronavirus,” he also added. He shared that the government had provided relief for the poor last year but he could not get that. “People don’t give alms like prior to COVID-19 as their income came down. Lockdown has created an extra pressure for poor. We tense all times how we eat to survive if the lockdown continues. Besides, it costs Tk1500 as house rent in the Kajla area. Even the prices of daily essential prices are high,” he also said. Also read: Coronavirus: ‘What option do you have when you’re hungry?’

The shrimp farmers in Khulna district are struggling to cope up with the Covid-19 pandemic effect amid the low price of shrimp. At the beginning of the pandemic, the shrimp farmers were counting a huge loss due to the high price of fish fry and fish feed and the drop in shrimp prices also added to their woes during the outbreak. Fisheries officials, frozen shrimp export organizations and shrimp farmers said frozen shrimp export is the second largest sector in the country and shrimp is being cultivated in Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira and other districts in the country. Read Lockdown: Sirajganj dairy farmers in trouble again The frozen shrimp organisations have stopped collecting shrimp from the farmers. As a result the prices of shrimp have fallen in the local market, which affected the shrimp farmers badly. Toufique Mahmud, fish inspection and quality control inspector, said a total of 29,540 metric tonnes of shrimp has been exported from Khulna region in the 2019-2020 fiscal year. The market value of the shrimp was Tk 2,360 crore. But in the current 2020-2021 fiscal years, some 21,490 metric tonnes of shrimp has been exported and the price of the shrimp was found Tk 1,571 crore, which showed a good sign in the export sector, he said. Also read: Bagerhat shrimp industry reeling under double whammy of rain and drought

The dairy farmers of Shahjadpur upazila in Sirajganj district have run into trouble again as the ongoing lockdown has choked the sales of milk they produce. Shahjadpur upazila produces some 20.50 lakh litres of milk a day, but now thousands of litres of milk are wasted due to drop in its sales and lack of storage facilities, the farmers alleged.  As the demand for milk in the open market is declining due to the closure of sweetshops, tea stalls and lack of people at haats and bazaars, farmers are counting huge losses. Visiting different areas of the upazila, the UNB correspondent found many of the farmers staging protests by dumping milk on the streets. Many farmers were also seen roaming at local markets to sell off cows as no option is left for them. Also read: Jashore dairy farmers count losses as demand falls According to Sirajganj District Livestock office, a milk-processing factory was set up in 1983 in Sirajganj by Milk Vita, a cooperative state-owned enterprise.  And then the upazila saw the mushrooming of cattle farms within years.