The containment of the population against the new coronavirus was lifted Sunday, May 31 in Bangladesh, despite the announcement the same day of a record number of deaths and cases of contamination in the past 24 hours.
Millions of people have returned to work in the densely populated cities of this South Asian country, whose economy was severely impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. " I have barely had three good meals in the past two months because I was out of work, " Tota Miah, a 58-year-old day laborer, told AFP.
" The confinement has been lifted and we are almost returning to normal life ," said the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health Nasima Sultana, calling on her compatriots returning to their businesses to wear a protective mask and observe the rules of social distancing.
And this while Bangladesh, which has 168 million inhabitants, recorded Sunday, May 31, its largest daily increase in the number of cases of contamination and deaths due to this disease, respectively 2,545 and 40.
Impossible social distancing
In the capital Dhaka, passengers crowded into the trains and the traffic has become dense again. Some wore gloves and protective masks while, in the long lines that had formed in front of bank branches, customers maintained a space between them. “ I tried to avoid the crowd when I walked to the office. But keeping your distance from others is impossible on the sidewalks of Dhaka, "Badrul Islam, a bank employee, told AFP.
The measures taken on March 26 to combat the spread of the coronavirus have been gradually eased in recent weeks, with only educational establishments remaining closed.
A total of 47,151 cases of contamination, including 650 fatal, have been officially recorded in Bangladesh, even if experts believe that this assessment is much heavier.
