Bangladesh lifts virus lockdown despite grave Delta threat

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Despite mounting fatalities and infections across the country, Bangladesh on Wednesday lifted its strict coronavirus curbs imposed for over a month.

The decision has divided opinion in a country struggling to contain a deadly COVID-19 surge driven by the highly infectious Delta variant, with business bodies hailing the move but citizens and medical experts largely still wary of the potential repercussions. “Given the current coronavirus situation in the country, we really should be extending the restrictions, not ending them,” Dr. Mushtaq Hossain, a virologist and chief advisor at the government-run Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research, told Anadolu Agency.