<span style="color: #222222;">The government of Bangladesh on Monday issued the official notification for the week-long 'hard-lockdown' starting from  Wednesday, 14 April  to control the spiralling COVID 19 pandemic in the country.<br />'' <br />'' According to the notification public transport including buses, railways, waterways and flights will remain suspended but freight transport services and vehicles needed for the essential services will be allowed to operate.<br />'' <br />'' All public offices, both in the government and the non-government sector will remain closed except those involved in essential works like health services, COVID vaccination, media, power distribution, water, internet services etc. Financial services including the banks will remain closed during the period of the lockdown.<br />'' <br />'' However, factories will remain open under the authorities' arrangement maintaining health safety guidelines. The authorities will ensure pick and drop off services for the workers.<br />'' <br />'' Hotels,restaurants, eating places will be open for takeaway or online services from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. and 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. Shopping malls and other shops will be closed. Kitchen Markets will be allowed to operate for sale of things of daily necessity but they will need to run in open places from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.<br />''<br />''Meanwhile, the COVID 19 deaths continued to surge in Bangladesh. On Monday, the country reported a record 83 deaths in a single day since March last year when the first coronpositve case was recorded in the country. 7201 new corona cases were also reported during the same period. With this the death toll due to COVID 19 in Bangladesh has gone up to 9822.</span>