Dhaka International University

66, Green Road, Dhaka-1205

Department of Computer Science & Engineering

ASSIGNMENT
Course Name: Basic English

Course Code: ENG-101

Submission Date: 05-06-2020

Submitted By Submitted To
Name: Sazid Ahmed Omi Mohammad Sakhaoat Hosain
Department of CSE Lecturer
Dhaka International University Department of English
Batch: 57 (Day) Dhaka International University
Roll: 21
Registration no.: CS-D-57-19-111410
 Impact of COVID- 19 in Bangladesh

The name ‘corona virus’ is derived from Latin corona. Corona virus disease
(COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered
coronavirus. The meaning of corona is “crown” or “wreath”. The
coronavirus family causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to more
severe diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and
the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), according to the WHO.
Human corona viruses were first discovered in the late 1960s. Latter in
December 2019 it was spread at Wuhan in China. Are circulating in
animals and some of these coronaviruses have the capability of
transmitting between animals and humans. Most people infected with the
COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and
recover without requiring special treatment.

Corona Virus is an RNA virus which has a lipid envelope studded with club-
shaped projections. It typically infects birds and many mammals especially
humans and includes the causative agents of MERS, SARS, and COVID-
19. Older people and those with underlying medical problems like
cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer
are more likely to develop serious illness. These viruses were originally
transmitted from animals to people. SARS, for instance, was transmitted
from civet cats to humans. Common signs of infection include respiratory
symptoms, fever, and cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.
Infected patients can be also asymptomatic, meaning they do not display
any symptoms despite having the virus in their systems. In more severe
cases, an infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory
syndrome, kidney failure, and even death. There is some standard
prevention to safe yourself from the corona virus. Protect yourself and
others from infection by washing your hands or using an alcohol-based rub
frequently and not touching your face.

They are regular hand washing, covering mouth and nose when coughing
and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs. The COVID-19 virus
spreads primarily through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose
when an infected person coughs or sneezes, so it’s important that you also
practice respiratory etiquette. Avoid close contact with anyone showing
symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing and
maintain social distance at least 1 meter (3 feet) distance between yourself
and anyone who is coughing or sneezing. The WHO declared the virus a
global pandemic on March 11 and said it was “deeply concerned by the
alarming levels of spread and severity” of the outbreak. However, there are
many ongoing clinical trials evaluating potential treatments. WHO will
continue to provide updated information as soon as clinical findings
become available.

In the wake of the coronavirus crisis, the Bangladesh government

announced a "general holiday" starting from March 26, which has been
extended until May 16 on several rounds. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
issued 31 directives that laid out how lives will be governed and managed
during the pandemic. For example, clause 22 specifically mentions that
disadvantaged workers such as agriculture workers, day laborers,
rickshaw- and van pullers, and transport workers will get special attention
and relief. Nevertheless, there was absolutely no mention of nearly 4.1
million garment workers or 10.5 million domestic workers—most of whom
are working-class, underprivileged women. Garment workers' labor is
intrinsically hinged with the national economic interest, and domestic
workers' labor is critical for sustaining middle- and upper-class lives during
the pandemic, and there is an abundant supply of these cheap, feminised,
disposable bodies. Therefore, the purpose of serving the economy
superseded the necessity of protecting these workers from the virus. The
languages of "home quarantining" and "social distancing" were directly
imported from the west to save lives that were worthy of protection. Those
vocabularies and concepts made little sense to those who live in slums,
who work in crowded factories, who do not afford to work-from-home, who
are the gendered-racialised-classed others in our society. The calculated
economised lockout reserved access to quarantining and social distancing
for those who seemed worthy of living.

In a society where economy becomes the container of lives, it is not

surprising that the logic of national economic interests will shape the
arguments around how to manage the lockdown. We are frequently seeing
the simplest arguments, such as more people will die from starving or
famine if the lockdown continues. To validate these claims, sophisticated
economic models are often used to pinpoint the difference between the
numbers of deaths if and if not the lockdown is eased.
Many have found that the binary choice between life vs economy
problematic as the so-called "choice" does not question whose lives will be
saved and which elements of the economy will be worth saving. The whole
fear of having a famine has been questioned by many by referring to the
Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen, who accuses the lack of
democracy in a country for creating famine, and not the lack of food.
Another Nobel Laureate economist, Abhijit Banerjee, stressed that
countries like India should not be obsessed with macroeconomic stability
during the pandemic. He proposed printing and transferring money to the
people who need it the most and the adoption of a fiscally liberal economic
policy. The Indian state of Kerala—which is ruled by the communist state
government—has been widely praised for its efficient human-centric
response to COVID-19. Along with technological measures, such as mass
testing, contact tracing, and longer quarantining, Kerala distributed cooked
meals to people in need, built shelters for migrant workers stranded by the
unanticipated sudden shutdown, and provided broader social support to the
community.

More than 3.34 million people have been reported to be infected by the
novel coronavirus globally and 237,137 have died, according to a Reuters
tally.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories
since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

The procession of coronavirus deaths and infections in Bangladesh is

getting longer.

Five more deaths and 552 new cases of infection from Covid-19 were
confirmed in the last 24 hours up to early Saturday. With this, the death toll
from the deadly virus has risen to 175 and total infections to 8,790.

Dhaka division has become the hotspot of the outbreak as 83.07 percent of
the total confirmed cases have been recorded here.

Chittagong and Mymenshingh divisions have reported the second and third
highest percentage of confirmed cases, 4.6 and 3.71 percent respectively.
Next in line are Khulna, Rangpur, Barishal, reporting 2.20 percent, 1.80
percent, and 1.67 percent cases respectively.

Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions have been reported to be the least affected
areas, having 1.53 percent and 1.57 percent of total confirmed cases.

Additional director general of the Directorate General of Health Services,

Professor Dr Nasima Sultana, made the announcement at the daily online
health bulletin on Saturday. "All new confirmed deceased were from Dhaka
─ three males and two females. In the last 24 hours, 6,193 samples were
collected and 5,827 were tested."

"Three patients recovered during this time and a total of 177 have
recovered so far. Now, 69,094 patients are in quarantine, including 1,543
newly infected ones. And 121,349 people have been released from
quarantine up to now," she added.

"The authorities have put 168 new Covid-19 suspects in isolation, bringing
the total to 1,632. And they have released 1,022 people so far.

"Till date, 677,711 thermal screenings have been conducted at different

ports, including 255 at airports, 133 at seaports and 73 at land ports."

Dr Nasima once again emphasised the need to maintain social distancing

to curb the spread of the virus.

The coronavirus pandemic has a lot of dark sides. Around the world,
people get ill and die, schools close, the healthcare system is overloaded,
employees lose their jobs, companies face bankruptcy, stock markets
collapse and countries have to spend billions on bailouts and medical aid.
And for everyone, whether directly hurt or not, Covid-19 is a huge stressor
shaking up our psyche, triggering our fears and uncertainties. It has some
bright sight too.

In today’s overheated economy time is often seen as the most valuable and
sparse thing we have. Covid-19 shows why: because we have stacked our
week with social gatherings and entertainment such as going to the theater,
birthdays, cinema, restaurant, bar, sportclub, gym, music, festivals,
concerts and what is more. Suddenly, all of that is cancelled or forbidden,
giving us significant amounts of extra time. And still, live goes on. This
shows us how easy it is to clear our calendars. Obviously this doesn’t apply
to the health-care sector and other crucial sectors, but beyond those it
applies to a large majority of sectors.

The opportunity is that we can spend this time on other things—or even
better, on nothing and enjoy the free time. Looking at the crowded parks,
waste collection points, garden centres and DIY stores in the last week,
many people seem to have a hard time with the latter. Instead of enjoying
the extra free time, they fill it immediately with other activities. To seize this
first opportunity though, re-arranging how you spend your time and
reserving time for nothingness is key. Not just during the crisis, but also
after it.

As referred to in an article, people spend up to 23 hours per week in

meetings, half of which are considered a failure or waste of time. The
current crisis has forced us to rethink how we deal with meetings. Because
in many countries it is not allowed anymore to meet with a group of
persons, many meetings are cancelled. And when they still take place they
are mostly virtual and shorter.

As such, it provides an excellent opportunity for resolving one of the most

disliked parts of organizational life. The technology for this is already
present and mature for a couple of years, but the coronavirus triggers a
sudden need for it. The real opportunity here is to make systematic
changes so that meetings will be more effective, also after the crisis.

The virus caused a shutdown or dramatically decrease of industrial

activities. Factories are closed or operate far below their capacity, road
traffic has reduced radically and air traffic collapsed, and the lack of tourism
has emptied the streets in overcrowded cities like Venice, Amsterdam and
New York. While this may be bad news for most people and especially
those working in the affected industries, this is also good news for our
planet. Covid-19 causes a significant reduction in greenhouse gasses and
other air, water and land polluting outputs. In Venice this has allegedly led
to dolphins return after just a couple of weeks (although some argued this
to be a hoax).
Whether the particular example is a hoax or not is not so relevant. The fact
is that the shutdown and lockdown of large parts of our economy is good
for nature—at least on the short term. The opportunity this provides, is to
keep parts of this in place also after the crisis to make long-term
improvements. Along the line of the previous opportunities, the current
crisis provides us an opportunity to reconsider our lives and reorganize it in
a way that has less impact on our planet.

The enhanced stimulus package announced by the prime minister is

commendable and step in the right direction. The package which has
nearly $2.5 billion allocation for bridge financing of the working capital of
small and medium sized industries is a bold step to protect the livelihood of
people employed in that sector. Such is the scale of this crisis, even a
stimulus package of this magnitude should be viewed as a stopgap
measure.

More worryingly still, data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics

indicates that Bangladesh has more than 50 million workers in the informal
sector. While there will be a significant impact on the livelihood of workers
in the formal economy, there can be no doubt that the informal sector will
be hit even harder. The prime minister was right to identify this as a
challenge and her decision to distribute food aid through Bangladesh’s
existing social safety programs such as the Vulnerable Group Feeding and
Vulnerable Group Development for six months must also be welcomed.

The government should also consider an unconditional cash transfer

program for an initial period of three months at a rate of $95 per month,
which corresponds to the minimum wage for the formal sector in
Bangladesh. This would cost the government roughly $14 billion, or 4% of
GDP. While this sort of cash transfer program always suffers from targeting
issues, Bangladesh enjoys a highly sophisticated mobile financial services
network, which could improve the cover of the program. A concerted effort
involving the non-governmental organizations working in the informal
sector, mobile financial service providers, and the government could be
developed to deliver this urgently needed social assistance.

Taking such an aggressive step would mean that Bangladesh would have
to forego its usually prudent and disciplined fiscal policy of maintain its
budget deficit within 5% of GDP. With a low debt-to-GDP ratio, Bangladesh
has enough fiscal headroom to adapt an expansionary approach in the
short run to fight off the economic and humanitarian aspect of this crisis. To
finance this expansion, Bangladesh should also look to tap into the
concessionary financing available at its disposal through the multilateral
development banks.

The steps on the fiscal side – the stimulus package – must also be
complemented by steps on the monetary policy side. Bangladesh Bank has
already put a freeze on loan repayments for six months until June 2020 and
relaxed foreign exchange regulations for trade transactions until September
2020. It has also increased the transaction limit on mobile financial services
as well as cut the monetary policy rate by 25 basis points. These are steps
in the right direction, but they are unlikely to prove aggressive enough to
fight the economic impact of a global pandemic.

With inflation expected to cool across the world, the central bank should
follow the steps taken by its counterparts across the world to inject further
liquidity by reducing the Statutory Liquidity Ratio and further reducing its
policy rate. This will not only help maintain liquidity within the banking
sector but also provide small- and medium-sized enterprises in the country
with access to cheaper working capital to keep their businesses afloat.

By taking early steps on the health security side, Bangladesh has been
able to buy itself some time to respond to this pandemic. But the country
cannot afford to be blind-sided by the secondary economic risks associated
with this crisis.

The fight against COVID-19 cannot be carried out by the government

alone. It will require an unprecedented level of coordination between the
public and private at the local and international level. The World Economic
Forum, with a mandate from the World Health Organization, has launched
the COVID Action Platform in response to the pandemic. Bangladesh
should look to tap into this platform to galvanize support for its private
sector and share some of its own experience in fighting COVID-19 and
increasing its economic resilience.

There are hundreds of coronaviruses, most of which circulate in animals.

Only seven of these viruses infect humans and four of them cause
symptoms of the common cold. But, three times in the last 20 years, a
coronavirus has jumped from animals to humans to cause severe disease.
SARS, a beta coronavirus emerged in 2002 and was controlled mainly by
aggressive public health measures. There have been no new cases since
2004. MERS emerged in 2012, still exists in camels, and can infect people
who have close contact with them.

COVID-19, a new and sometimes deadly respiratory illness that is believed

to have originated in a live animal market in China, has spread rapidly
throughout that country and the world.

The new coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, China in December

2019. Tens of thousands of people were infected in China, with the virus
spreading easily from person-to-person in many parts of that country.

The novel coronavirus infections were at first associated with travel from
Wuhan, but the virus has now established itself in 177 countries and
territories around the world in a rapidly expanding pandemic. Health
officials in the United States and around the world are working to contain
the spread of the virus through public health measures such as social
distancing, contact tracing, testing, quarantines and travel restrictions.
Scientists are working to find medications to treat the disease and to
develop a vaccine.

The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak “a

public health emergency of international concern” on January 30. On March
11, 2020 after sustained spread of the disease outside of China, the World
Health Organization declared the COVID-19 epidemic a pandemic. Public
health measures like ones implemented in China and now around the world
will hopefully blunt the spread of the virus while treatments and a vaccine
are developed to stop it.

END.