The historical novelty of the coronavirus shock has unravelled as the lockdown continues. Bangladesh’s economic expansion is projected to face a drastic brake.

Mobile financial service provider Nagad yesterday announced it slashed the transaction charge for small and medium-sized enterprises by about 59 per cent to Tk 6 for every 1,000 to mitigate their woes in the time of the coronavirus pandemic.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal plans to unveil the national budget for next fiscal year on June 11 amid deepening uncertainties brought on by the deadly coronavirus.

Six months ago, Abul Bashar invested around Tk 1.5 lakh in setting up two new 40-yard tables at his home-cum-factory. He was targeting bumper demand of batik clothes ahead of Pahela Baishakh and Eid-ul-Fitr.

Salaries of about 87 percent of the garment workers have been disbursed, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) claimed yesterday as workers staged demonstrations demanding wages in different parts of the country, mostly in the capital and its adjacent districts.

Yasmin Islam, a nurse at the surgery ward of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital, received a call from her landlord while she was at work last week.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the government would bring 50 lakh more poor people under its ration card facilities to provide them with rice at Tk 10 per kg to mitigate their sufferings caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

Ten people died from Covid-19 and 341 tested positive in 24 hours till 2:30pm yesterday, with public health experts warning that the country is now going through the third stage of coronavirus transmission when the virus spreads quickly.

Reading different narratives, survey results, and media reports and articles on the coronavirus pandemic, one is overcome with a range of emotions: depression, paralysis, anger, denial, helplessness—emotions that are reflective of being privileged, of having the luxury to dwell on them.

It often takes the life of one man for a nation to wake up or to gather the courage to call a spade a spade.

Schools throughout the country, with some 3.7 million students and over a million teachers, are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The ongoing shutdown is likely to continue beyond the approaching Ramadan until the end of May. So what can we say about the millions of students, their learning and their wellbeing?

It is worrying to learn that the low number of Covid-19 positive cases in Bangladesh could be due to flaws in detecting suspected cases and collecting samples.

The government’s relief package of Tk 5,000 crore for the agriculture sector surprisingly does not cover crop and cereal producers such as Boro cultivators, even though Boro accounts for more than 50 percent of the country’s total rice production.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Shafiqul Islam has directed police to take necessary steps if healthcare service providers face any trouble in entering their homes after they return from their jobs every day.

At this time when countrymen are in distress amid the nationwide shutdown but many MPs are not seen in their constituencies, one lawmaker from Sylhet -- Mahmud Us Samad Chowdhury, parliamentarian for Sylhet-3 constituency -- has been an exception.

A 39-year-old Bangladeshi construction worker infected with coronavirus is transferred to the general ward from the intensive care unit of a hospital in Singapore.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is sending two consignments of emergency medicines to Bhutan for the safety of its senior citizens against the risks of Covid-19 infection.

The Bangladesh Bank decides to extend the banking operation across the country during the ongoing shutdown.

The government today declared the entire Bangladesh at risk of the coronavirus pandemic as the infection has now spread to various parts of the country.

Four employees of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) test positive for Covid-19.