Waiting among hundreds of fellow travellers to catch a ferry out of Bangladesh’s capital, unemployed construction worker Mohammed Nijam knew he was risking catching the coronavirus but he felt it was even riskier to stay in Dhaka with another lockdown looming.
“I have to pay rent every month even though I have no work,” he said, adding that his landlord had been bothering him for money even as he was struggling just to feed himself.
“I would rather go to my village home and lead life as God lets me.”
Nijam is among the tens of millions of Bangladeshis shopping and travelling this week during a controversial eight-day pause in the country’s strict coronavirus lockdown that the government is allowing for the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha.
The suspension has been panned by health experts who warn it could exacerbate an ongoing surge driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, which was first detected in neighbouring India.
“Already there is a scarcity of beds, ICUs, while our healthcare providers are exhausted,” said Be-Nazir Ahmed, a public health expert and former chief of the government’s Health Directorate.
“So if the situation worsens and more patients come to hospitals, it will be near-impossible to deal with the crisis.”
With the spread of the virus rampant, almost everything in Bangladesh was ordered shut on July 1, from markets to mass transportation. Soldiers and border guards patrolled the streets and thousands were arrested and sent to jail for violating the lockdown.
