Prepare list of RMG workers

The health ministry yesterday directed all deputy commissioners to prepare and preserve a list of all RMG workers in their respective districts.

It also asked them to ensure home quarantine of garment workers, who would return from Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj. A letter, sent from the health services division of the ministry, also asked all civil surgeons to assist deputy commissioners in this regard.

The directives came at a time when number of garment factories resuming operations is on the rise after the government allowed limited operation of the country's top export-oriented sector in the last week of April.

Health experts say reopening the factories increases the risk of a wider transmission of Covid-19 outbreak.

Around 80 percent of the country's total garment factories are in Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Narsingdi. According to IEDCR, Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur are the worst affected districts.

"We have given the directives following advice of the national technical advisory committee on Covid-19," Habibur Rahman Khan, additional secretary (administration wing) of health services division, told The Daily Star yesterday.

He said the committee during Monday's meeting with the health minister suggested that the authorities should take measures so that workers now working at different factories in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur do not change their locations.

They also recommended steps so that none can leave their current stations ahead of Eid in a bid to contain the spread of Covid-19. "It will be easier to trace them through the list and send them to home quarantine if they return home from these three districts," he said.

NUMBER OF REOPENED FACTORIES INCREASING

Meanwhile, the number of factories resuming operations is increasing day by day.

At least 3,492, out of 7,602 export-oriented factories have reopened as of yesterday, according to industrial police. The number of factories reopened was 1,427 on April 26, the first day after a one-month shutdown.

At least 1,269, out 1,882 factories under BGMEA, reopened till yesterday, industrial police said. A total of 369, out of 1,101 of BKMEA, 183 out of 389 of BTMA, 304 out of 364 under BEPZA and 1,367 out of 3,866 other factories so far reopened, they added.