The garment and knitwear exporters’ associations have decided to keep the factories shut until Apr 25 after the government extended the lockdown with the coronavirus cases rising.
The offices of the plants can remain open to pay the workers, but the owners must inform the associations and industrial police for that.
Rubana Huq, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association or BGMEA, and AKM Salim Osman, the chief of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association or BKMEA, made the announcement in a joint statement on Friday.
The entrepreneurs of the apparel sector had faced criticism when they decided to reopen some factories amid the shutdown, forcing thousands to workers to walk or travel in difficulty from one district to another to save their jobs. They returned home after the owners changed decision.
They had kept open 41 factories in Dhaka, Chattogram and Gazipur for urgent work until Wednesday after the lockdown started on Mar 26.
The number of factories still operating dropped to 26 on Thursday as an entrepreneur died from the coronavirus at a hospital in Dhaka.
A worker also died of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, at his home in Patuakhali on return from his plant in Narayanganj, where he fell ill.
On Friday, Bangladesh reported 94 new coronavirus cases, taking the tally of positive tests to 424 while the death toll rose to 27 from 21.
Just before the daily health bulletin, the government extended the shutdown of offices to Apr 25 and ordered people not to leave home after 6pm.
Source: bdnews24
