Sanity, said a line in an old movie, exists in every contract. It is so in every social compact that precedes the establishment of any society or social grouping.

Shop owners yesterday urged the commerce ministry to allow the opening of retail and wholesale stores from the first of May seeing that several garments factories were given the go-ahead to reopen.

Four million students of tertiary education in Bangladesh—in over 5,000 institutions including public and private universities, affiliated colleges, and professional institutions—are in shutdown, which will continue until September if the situation does not improve.

Farmers will enjoy agriculture loans at 4 per cent interest as the government looks to perk up the growers who will feed the nation amid the coronavirus-induced economic uncertainty, the central bank said yesterday.

There are now almost three million confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide, and over 200,000 deaths have been reported.

The head of the World Health Organization yesterday warned that the new coronavirus pandemic was far from over and said that he was “deeply concerned” about the impact of the disruption of normal health services, especially on children.

On April 16, as coronavirus continued to spread through the country, the government declared all of Bangladesh to be at risk from the pandemic.

With high hopes, on March 19, Washiqur Rahman, a resident of Sobhanbag, had placed an order with Chaldal, the country’s leading online grocery store. Three weeks in, he had failed to secure the delivery despite several back-and-forth with the company.

The government has decided not to do rapid testing for Covid-19 as the World Health Organization has yet to approve such a test, the health ministry has said.

When the country is grappling with community transmission of novel coronavirus, more than one third of doctors at private hospitals surveyed said they have still not been provided with any personal protective equipment (PPE).

Coronavirus infections in Bangladesh crossed the 5,000 mark recently. To make matters worse, the silent spread of the virus is beginning to take a toll as more and more asymptomatic cases are being detected.

It is worrying that a UN position report has found that Bangladesh has the fewest social protection initiatives in the Asia Pacific region.

As Britain faces a shortage of personal protective equipment for health care workers battling the coronavirus outbreak, London’s tailors are putting their cutting and sewing machines to use to fill the void.

The UN human rights office voices concern about more than a dozen countries that have declared states of emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic where police have arrested or detained hundreds of thousands of people and killed others.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has asked all Bangladeshi ambassadors to Middle Eastern countries to ensure Bangladeshi migrants get food assistance if needed.

A man in Jhenaidah, who earns a livelihood by driving a human hauler, donates Tk 50,000 which he managed to save all his life to stand beside those who have been hit hard by economic fallout due to coronavirus outbreak.

Narail district will be under lockdown for an indefinite period from 3:00pm tomorrow to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

A cobbler in Rangpur donates Tk 20,000 to the Prime Minister's Relief and Welfare Fund to help combat the outbreak of coronavirus in the country.

A number of people, who have lost their jobs during coronavirus outbreak in the country, stage a demonstration blocking Tangail-Mymensingh highway in Ghatail upazilia of Tangail demanding food for their survival.

Bangladesh has sought the support of the United States for the country’s RMG sector, which has been badly hit by fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.