Bangladesh, which imposed a nine-day lockdown on April 5, has decided to extend it by a week. According to BDNews, “the national technical advisory committee on the coronavirus has recommended extending the ongoing lockdown for another week in an effort to curb the virus flareup.”

The panel met on Sunday to take a call on the lockdown.

The committee also said that the lockdown should be lifted gradually in a phased manner.

Bangladesh, home to 160 million people, is currently in the middle of a second wave of Corvid 19 pandemic.

“By measuring the course of the current spike in Covid-19 cases, it could be said that the pandemic has now reached its peak,” Dhaka Tribune quoted Mohammad Mushtuq Husain, adviser at the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research as saying. Husain also said that the number of cases is likely to start falling from May.

The World Health Organization considers a pandemic to be under control if the infection rate remains below 5 per cent for two consecutive weeks, the newspaper said.

The committee on Covid 19 management has predicted that the surge in infections will continue till mid-May or another week if the measures to contain the spread of coronavirus are enforced strictly. “Otherwise, the number of cases will continue to mount, the projection report of the committee forewarns,” the Dhaka Tribune said.