Six municipalities and one union in Chandpur district have been proposed to be included in the red zone for strict lockdown. The proposal has already been sent to Dhaka from the district health department. The proposal is now awaiting the final decision of the Ministry of Health and the top echelons of the government.
Sources at the Civil Surgeon’s Office in Chandpur said that on Thursday, June 18. The source further said that in the light of the approval and guidance of the ministry, the proposed red zone or strict lockdown might be implemented simultaneously or in phases in the proposed 6 municipalities and 1 union.
Of the municipalities proposed for the red zone are Chandpur Municipality, Hajiganj Municipality, Matlab Municipality, Shahrasti Municipality and Kachua Municipality. The only proposed union is Algi South Union of Haimchar Upazila.
According to sources, the first case in Chandpur district was identified in the north, but now the lowest number of patients in the district is there. Aparrt from this, the number of victims of corona is highest in every upazila of the district.
In view of these, it has been proposed to bring these areas under the red zone as there is maximum number of corona patients in 7 upazila and the number of patients allotted by the government for the red zone. As there is no municipality in Haimchar alone, the health department has proposed to keep the union of Upazila Sadar in the red zone.
Chandpur Civil Surgeon Sakhawat Ullah said on Thursday night that corona infections were highest in Chandpur town and Hajiganj town in Chandpur district. Besides, the contagion of corona has reached the red zone in other upazila headquarters except Matlab North.
He said, “We went to divide the zones and saw that one of the major problems in making ward based zones in the city is that one / more roads are falling in multiple wards.” In that case, if the road is closed for one ward, the traffic to other wards will also be stopped.
Moreover, the number of corona cases is increasing in different wards of the city. So we have proposed to bring the whole municipal area under red zone and lockdown. We have already sent our proposal to the ministry. Now we will implement the decision that will come to us from the ministry.
The Civil Surgeon hopes that the direction of the Red Zone in Chandpur may come next week. He said the lockdown in the Red Zone would be much tougher and tougher than the current or previous lockdown. There will be a public holiday in the lockdown area of the red zone. All types of institutions will be closed. The road will be blocked. Traffic will also be completely stopped. Many emergency services will also be closed.
According to the latest statistics from the health department, the number of corona patients in Chandpur district till Thursday (June 18) was 511. Of these, 182 are in Chandpur Sadar, 63 in Shahrashti, 62 in Hajiganj, 60 in Faridganj, 56 in Matlab South, 33 in Haimchar, 28 in Kachua and 27 in Matlab North.
The death toll of those identified in the district is 44. Of these, 13 are in Hajiganj, 12 in Chandpur Sadar, 6 in Faridganj, 4 in Kachua, 4 in Matlab North, 3 in Shahrasti and 2 in Matlab South.
Incidentally, it may be mentioned that on April 09, Chandpur Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate Majedur Rahman Khan announced a lockdown which has been still running a bit loosely. The lockdown is now taking place in a very relaxed manner, especially after the end of the nationwide public holiday. It is learned that the lockdown has been relaxed locally due to the central directives of the government.
