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The government has suspended passenger trains from Rajshahi to the rest of the country for a week from Saturday midnight as it scrambles to contain COVID-19 outbreaks in the border districts.
The railway ministry made the announcement on Thursday night as the number of cases in Rajshahi continued to surge amid stricter lockdown restrictions, reports bdnews24.com.
Passenger train services were suspended altogether on Apr 5 when the government enforced a nationwide lockdown to deal with the second wave of infection.
The outbreaks in the rural border districts, however, have worsened after the detection of the highly infectious Delta variant, which has caused widespread loss of life in India.
As many as 12 patients died at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital’s COVID-19 unit in the 24 hours to 6:00 pm on Thursday, taking the death toll there to 92 in 10 days.
The positivity rate of coronavirus tests has continued to rise at the new disease hotspot in Rajshahi. Of the 404 tests conducted at two labs in Rajshahi, 169, or 41.85 per cent, came back positive on Wednesday.