Bangladesh to lift lockdown for festival despite record infections

BANGLADESH will lift its nationwide coronavirus lockdown for the country's second-biggest religious festival, the government said on Tuesday, even as new infections soared to record levels.

The cabinet said all restrictions would be eased in the Muslim-majority country of 169 million people from Thursday ahead of the Eid al-Adha festival which will be celebrated from July 20 to 22.

The removal of the curbs would "normalise economic activities" ahead of the celebrations, it added.

Tens of millions of people usually head back to their villages to mark Eid al-Adha with their families.

Bangladesh imposed its strictest-ever lockdown at the start of the month as new Covid-19 cases and deaths climbed to pandemic highs.

Under the lockdown, people were only allowed to leave home for emergencies and to buy essentials, with public transport, shops and offices shut.

But infections have continued to climb, with nearly 14,000 people testing positive on Monday -- a new daily record -- to take the total number of cases to a little more than one million. The death toll has risen above 16,600.

Mohammad Shahidullah, who heads a health committee that advises the government on the pandemic management, said his group of experts opposed the easing of the lockdown.

"The committee opines that this strict lockdown should be continued till there is a declining trend in infections," Shahidullah said.

"Amid the lockdown, there is an increasing trend of infections and fatalities. The infection level is still very high."

"It might cause a disaster. The coronavirus situation was already alarming," the World Health Organization's former southeast Asia regional adviser Muzaherul Huq added.

There are also fears that crowding at markets to buy animals for slaughter and big gatherings during the festival could become super-spreader events.

The announcement came as authorities restarted the country's Covid-19 vaccination drive, which virtually ground to a halt in late April after imports of shots from India were suspended to meet local demand amid a massive virus surge.

The revived inoculation programme kicked off on a large scale on Tuesday with two million shots of Sinopharm from China and 2.5 million Moderna doses from the United States via the Covax programme.

A further six million doses of Moderna and five million Sinopharm jabs are expected to arrive in August.

So far, 4.2 million people in Bangladesh have been fully vaccinated with two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine bought or donated from India.

A further 1.6 million have received one shot.