Nurul Islam, chairman of Jamuna Group, one of the biggest conglomerates in the country, died of Covid-19 at a city hospital yesterday.

The coronavirus pandemic has slowed down the implementation of at least 40 of the 49 projects funded by the Asian Development Bank.

Bangladesh MP Shahid Islam Papul gave 720,000 dinars (about Tk 20 crore) to two members of Kuwait’s National Assembly as bribes to facilitate foreign workers’ recruitment and financial transactions, according to Kuwait’s Public Prosecution.

The rift between the health ministry and the health directorate over the Regent Hospital scam will seriously hurt the government efforts to contain the Covid-19 outbreak, say experts.

A Dhaka court yesterday issued two arrest warrants against Regent Group Chairman Shahed Karim in connection with two cases filed over embezzling Tk 3.68 crore of a businessman.

Since JKG Health Care’s alleged involvement in the fake Covid-19 test report scam surfaced late last month, Dr Sabrina Arif Chaudhury has been claiming that she was never the organisation’s chairman.

Police yesterday arrested JKG Health Care Chairman Dr Sabrina Arif Chowdhury, also a government official, over issuing fake Covid-19 test reports, about three weeks after the scam came to light.

As the coronavirus pandemic has taken its toll on almost every business in some way or another, bookstores and book cafes in the capital are no exception.

The arrest and trial of a Bangladeshi lawmaker in Kuwait on charges of human trafficking, money laundering and bribery is damaging the reputation of Bangladesh’s politics, society and the people as a whole, Transparency International Bangladesh has said.

The Criminal Investigation Department yesterday claimed to have arrested the ringleader and two members of a syndicate that has been trafficking thousands of girls and forcing them into sex work.

The coronavirus positivity rate in the country has soared in the last few days despite a decline in the number of tests during this period.

The health ministry and health directorate are at loggerheads over signing of a deal with Regent Hospital after the disturbing discovery of the hospital’s involvement in issuing fake Covid-19 test results.

The number of Covid-19 tests has been declining in the country for the last few days.

During a time period that has seen an unprecedented rise in cases filed under the infamous Digital Security Act, the digital sphere is more unsafe than ever before.

Investigators are working to track down local human traffickers who along with different transnational syndicates send people abroad alluring them with promises of a better future.

A holistic plan, proper infrastructural capacities, all students’ access to digital devices and low cost internet connections are must to ensure fully-fledged online education at universities in the country.

Bangladesh’s rural economy is going to be under pressure as a significant number of people from urban areas are returning to their respective villages losing their sources of income due to Covid-19 fallout, says an expert.

Amanullah Ershad used to make enough to keep his two sons in primary school and pay the rent for his small flat in the capital’s Banasree.

The World Health Organization has urged countries grappling with coronavirus to step up control measures, saying it is still possible to rein it in, as some nations clamp fresh restrictions on citizens.

Though the number of new Covid-19 cases dropped last week compared to the week before, experts say there is no room for complacency as the rate of infection remained almost static.