Wasim Bin Habib

Monir Hossain found himself in a precarious situation as soon as Covid-19 hit the country in March last year. The 70-year-old businessman from Faridpur has been suffering from heart disease for the past five years and as such, regularly visits Dhaka for check-ups.

Abdul Hakim suddenly felt severe chest pain late at night sometime in August last year.

The rumble of truck engines of the 2nd Field Regiment disturbed the evening quietness at Dhaka cantonment. Loaded with 105mm cannons, the heavy-duty trucks began heading from the southern end of the cantonment to the under-construction airport on the capital’s edge.

Bangladesh will need an estimated $3.7 billion to inoculate 80 percent of the population against Covid in one and a half to two years and achieve herd immunity.

The SSC examinations will be held in November and the HSC tests in December if the Covid situation improves, the government announced yesterday allaying to some extent worries of around 36 lakh students as well as their guardians.

“Get us out of here. Please help!” These were the last words Liton heard from his sister-in-law Jahanara Begum when he called her on Thursday evening.

“Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that,” said iconic American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.

With the evening sun going down and the sky turning a dusty pink, a quietness descended at the Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1, 2016, towards the end of Ramadan that year.

In circuses, whenever artists perform the tightrope walking stunt, underneath them are wide nets to prevent them from falling to the ground and avoiding potentially life-threatening injuries -- lest they lose their balance on the thin rope and falls over.

The government has created two separate funds worth a combined Tk 12,300 crore under its massive social safety net programmes in the next fiscal year for targeted populations and low-paid informal sector workers.

The allotment for other social protection programmes may go up to Tk 65,000 crore, up 41.47 percent year on year.

The government could not spend two-thirds of its around Tk 25,000 crore cash-food support packages for the poor and vulnerable, frontline health workers and low-income farmers in the last year after its announcement.

Keeping in mind the possible impacts of the second Covid-19 wave, the government is going to attach top priority to vaccination, economic recovery, and life and livelihood of the poor in the upcoming national budget.

Over the last couple of weeks, Abdus Sobhan, a day labourer in the capital, saw his earnings drop to almost nothing.

The government is going to provide another round of cash assistance to nearly 35 lakh poor families facing income losses and hardship amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown.

The government’s decision to increase ICU beds in 10 public hospitals in Dhaka to treat a rising number of critical Covid-19 patients is certainly a step towards the right direction.

The ongoing restrictions to curb the Covid-19 surge across the country are showing signs of failure everywhere.

In the first week of last month when the country started seeing a resurgence of Covid-19 infections, healthcare experts sounded alarm, urging the government to take immediate measures to rein in the surge before it goes out of control.

An intense and sustained vaccination campaign can play a pivotal role in Bangladesh’s future economic benefits up to more than 10 percent of its current GDP, according to a new report of the World Bank.

The record of daily cases of Covid-19 got shattered yesterday and deaths from the deadly virus have been climbing every day. Hospitalisation is soaring as well. But the situation on the streets hardly gives any indication of how dangerous things have become.