Bangladesh enforces weeklong lockdown amid spike in COVID cases

Seven-day lockdown sees all domestic travel, including flights, suspended, and malls and shops shut.

Bangladesh is enforcing a lockdown for a week, shutting shopping malls and transportation, to help curb the spread of coronavirus as the rate of infections and deaths have increased in recent weeks. Domestic flights, river transport and railway operations were suspended on Monday, with only emergency services remaining operational. Travel from all European countries – except the United Kingdom – and 12 other countries has already been banned for three weeks. Health authorities said they were facing overwhelming pressure on hospitals in recent weeks because of the spike, which saw a record 7,087 new cases reported on Sunday taking the infection toll to just under 640,000, including 9,266 deaths.