Bangladesh orders offices to run with half employees in office

Bangladesh desk: The government on Sunday asked all government, semi-government, autonomous and private offices to operate with half of their staff in office and allowing the rest to work virtually between January 24 and February 6 in a fresh move to contain the spread of Covid-19.

The Cabinet Division issued a circular asking all concerned to take necessary measures to enforce the restriction in the wake of the sudden spike in Covid cases.

‘All government/semi-government/autonomous/non-government offices will have to run with half of their manpower at office. Other officials and employees will be staying at their workstations and will continue office work virtually [by e-file, e-mail, SMS, Whatsapp and other means],’ said the circular.

The Bangladesh Supreme Court will give instructions on court proceedings while Bangladesh Bank will give instructions on banks/insurances and financial institutions in this regard, it said.

On Sunday, Bangladesh reported 31.29 per cent test positivity with 10,906 new Covid cases, the official data shows.

The latest move came a couple days after the closure of educational institutions from January 21 to February 6.

Earlier, the government kept all educational institutions shut for more than one year and a half from March 18, 2020 to check Covid spread that killed 28,223 people and infected at least 16,85,136 since its detection on March 8, 2020.

Later, in-person classes at schools, colleges and equivalent institutions resumed on September 12, 2021.

All offices and businesses were earlier closed for over two months from March 25 to May 30, 2020 to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Later, restrictions on movement and businesses were imposed at time and again although the health rules, mainly mandatory use of mask and social distancing, to check the virus infections have largely been ignored.

Friday’s order said that a maximum of one hundred people would be allowed in social, religious, political or state programmes and the participants must carry vaccine certificates and RT PCR test reports conducted in the preceding 24 hours.

The order said that the officials and employees of all the government and non-government offices and factories must have vaccine certificate.

Wearing masks and following health rules are mandatory in all types of public gatherings, including markets, shopping malls, bus stands, launch terminals and rail stations, it said.

The circular said that the local administrations and law enforcement agencies would monitor the situation.

The government on January 10 issued 11-point restrictions, mandating the use of masks for people during movement outside the house, at shopping malls, shops, markets and public places or said they would be brought to justice.

The restrictions that also included showing Covid vaccination certificates to dine at restaurants and stay at hotels were hardly enforced.

The government also banned social, religious and political gatherings in open spaces.

The authorities, however, are yet to take effective steps to enforce the government-imposed fresh Covid restrictions in Dhaka and other places across the country.

The city buses, including the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation buses, were running at full capacity ignoring the order to keep half of their capacities vacant to check the infection.