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The Bangladesh government has issued a notice extending the current ongoing nationwide lockdown by five days to Aug 10 in an attempt to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lockdown restrictions will remain the same, aside from two exceptions, reports bdnews24.com citing the notice from the Cabinet Division on Thursday.
The new rules allow factories to reopen and domestic flights to resume services, both subject to health restrictions.
Bangladesh is currently facing the worst wave of the coronavirus pandemic since it began in 2020. The new Delta variant of the virus is driving new cases and deaths on a regular basis.
To curb the spread of the disease, a nationwide lockdown was imposed from Jul 1, but was later eased for nine days around Eid-ul-Azha at the advice of experts.
The lockdown was reimposed on Jul 23, after the Eid holidays. Since then, there have been new records for cases and deaths.
Initially, the government decided that all factories, public and private institutions and offices would be closed until the lockdown ended on Aug 5.
Though the government repeatedly said that it would not ease restrictions, it eventually bowed to pressure from factory owners and decided to allow factories to reopen on Aug 1.