Shops, malls to reopen from April 25

Staff Reporter: The government has decided to reopen all shops and malls across the country from April 25 amid the strict lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19. The shops and malls will remain open from 10am to 5pm every day. Legal action will be taken if hygiene rules are not maintained properly. A gazette notification in this regard was issued by the Cabinet Division on Friday.The decision has been taken considering the livelihood of people, said the notice. During the strict lockdown that began on April 14, the government closed all shops and markets across the country. However, online sales were allowed only after maintaining hygiene rules. Besides, kitchen markets and grocery shops remained open from for certain hours amid the lockdown. Bangladesh has been again seeing a steep rise in Covid-19 deaths and infections in the last few weeks, taking the tally of the total infected to 736,074 and fatalities to 10,781 till Thursday. Starting from April 7, the country has gone through a soft lockdown and a strict lockdown. The first phase of strict lockdown started on April 14 and ended on April 21 midnight. The second phase started from 6am on April 22 and will continue till April 28. BP/SM