While we are haunted by the spectre of coronavirus damaging our society, its health and the economy, there is another “virus” that has been destroying us from inside for decades.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday announced a new stimulus package of Tk 5,000 crore to give financial assistance to small and medium farmers and help them face the fallout of Covid-19.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday said it was premature to project what will be the country’s economic growth in the current fiscal.

Bangladesh’s tremendous growth momentum in recent years is set to come to a crashing halt for the coronavirus outbreak in the country, with the poor and informal sector bearing the most brunt, said the World Bank yesterday.

Garment workers who have not been paid for months gather to demonstrate in front of their factory at Malibagh in the capital yesterday.

The government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak has been plagued by inappropriate decisions, delayed actions and muddled thinking -- right from the beginning.

At least seven people, including a 6-month-old child, died after showing Covid-19 symptoms in six districts since Friday afternoon.

The labour shortage created by the current shutdown is worrying farmers ahead of the Boro paddy harvest, despite different measures taken by the government to ensure maximum crop yield.

Amid a gradual spread of Covid-19 cases, community groups in different areas in the capital are locking down streets and buildings by their own to ward off the looming crisis.

Three more people died from Covid-19 and 58 new cases were reported yesterday with the government scrambling to expand testing facilities to grassroots level and set up facilities to treat coronavirus patients.

TDS: How do you analyse the present coronavirus situation in Bangladesh?

Healthcare employees treating Covid-19 patients may stay in the hotels and motels of Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation for free.

European countries yesterday signaled that they were preparing to extend lockdowns several more weeks despite positive signs as the global death toll from the coronavirus epidemic crossed 100,000.

The government yesterday ordered people not to leave home after 6:00pm and extended the ongoing shutdown until April 25 as coronavirus cases and deaths continue to rise, according to a gazette of the public administration ministry.

At least six people died of Corvid-19-like symptoms in five districts in the last two days, while four tested positive for coronavirus in four districts yesterday.

Six more people died of novel coronavirus yesterday, the highest in a single day since the first confirmed case was reported in the country on March 8.

If statistics from other countries are to be believed, Bangladesh is now at the shoulder of the epidemic curve, and the only direction that this can go is up.

The government is set to unveil its third stimulus package soon, offering cash aid to poor families that have been hit hard by the ongoing shutdown amid coronavirus scare.

If the current containment strategy fails, the country will enter stage-4 of the coronavirus outbreak and then the strategy will be to mitigate the impact, health officials said.

The holy Shab-e-Barat, the night of fortune and forgiveness, will be observed in the country tonight.