Govt orders all madrasas to close

The government has ordered all madrasas, including Qawmi, to close as the coronavirus infections are increasing alarmingly. 

The Technical and Madrasah Education Division issued a gazette notification in this regard on Tuesday.   

Currently, all the educational institutions remain shut as per the government order but some madrasas are still now continuing educational activities. 

The notification said, 'A gazette notification was issued from the Prime Minister's office on March 29 about the closure of all educational institutions, including madrasa, as the coronavirus infections rose alarmingly. Presently lockdown is underway in the country.

'Earlier, the government decided to keep all educational institutions close until May 22 but some residential and non-residential madrasas in different places are still remain open which is very risky to health in current COVID situation.

'In this situation, it has been requested to shut all residential and non-residential educational institutions, including Qawmi madrasas, (except orphans) until further notice. And any relaxation cannot be shown to comply with this direction.'

Amid sudden surge in the coronavirus infections for the last couple of days, 66 deaths and 7,213 cases were reported in the last 24 hours, hitting the highest records of fatalities and infections in a day.

With this, the country's total deaths and cases stood at 9,384 and 6,51,652 respectively, the health directorate said in a press release on Tuesday.

Earlier on June 30 last year, and April 4, the government reported highest 64 coronavirus deaths, and 7,087 cases respectively.

Bangladesh first reported its COVID-19 cases on March 8 last year. Since then it has been struggling to curb spread of the highly contagious virus.   

MHM/SU