Muntakim Saad

When JKG Health Care got the job of collecting Covid-19 test samples from booths back in April, the Directorate General of Health Services didn’t even check its licence.

Since JKG Health Care’s alleged involvement in the fake Covid-19 test report scam surfaced late last month, Dr Sabrina Arif Chaudhury has been claiming that she was never the organisation’s chairman.

Amanullah Ershad used to make enough to keep his two sons in primary school and pay the rent for his small flat in the capital’s Banasree.

Jannatul Ferdous was admitted to Max Hospital in Chattogram with breathing problems early last month.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital is struggling with inadequate ICU facility as a large number of critical Covid-19 patients are thronging the country’s largest public hospital.

Faruk Mia came to Dhaka on Saturday, all the way from Narsingdi, to buy an oxygen cylinder for his 65-year-old ailing father as it could not be managed in his district.

With no work for two months now, domestic help Bibi Rupban has been struggling to feed her five children three meals a day. Her husband, a rickshaw-puller, can hardly scrounge up enough for the family to live on.

Sacked from their jobs or facing loss in their small businesses, the families now collect, cook, and share meals together.

With law enforcement agencies now busy tackling the coronavirus situation, drug dealers have seemingly taken advantage of the consequent reduction in monitoring and become active again in different spots of the capital.

The prisons authorities are releasing another 2,329 convicted prisoners from jails in third phase to ease the accommodation crisis and minimise the risk of novel coronavirus transmission in overcrowded prisons.

The charges under Digital Security Act brought against 11 people, including two journalists, on May 6 are broadly described as “knowingly posting rumours against the Father of the Nation, the Liberation

Eleven people, including a cartoonist, a journalist and a writer, were charged with “spreading rumours and carrying out anti-government activities” under the Digital Security Act yesterday.

In spite of disapproval by the drug administration, unauthorised rapid Covid-19 test kits are being sold online through e-commerce sites and social media.

Imagine a market where anyone can buy daily essentials, but instead of money, they use friendship points!

Sweety Dhar, in her mid-30s, is a cancer patient and has been in Australia for treatment since September last year.

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.

It’s a melting pot of activities. Children are playing on the alleys, groups of youths are playing dice, adults gossiping on the street, and opened shops are crowded by both buyers and onlookers.

The country is considering to release on bail some 3,000 prisoners, including those under trial and jailed for bailable offences, to lower the chances of coronavirus transmission in crowded jails.

Dhaka is eerie quiet, much like most capitals and countries around the world as they grapple with a common enemy -- the spread of the coronavirus. Bangladesh is currently in the midst of a country-wide shut down that has been in force from March 26 and will extend till April 4.

At least 30 beds for as many policemen are crammed into a dorm room of about 450sqft at Mohammadpur Police Camp in the capital.