BKMEA Asks Factories to Close until April 4

Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) has asked all its member factories to close until April 4 with the goal of shielding the country and people from novel coronavirus infections.

"At this moment, our main priority is to save the country and its people from coronavirus. If people live, the economy will survive, and if the business survives, the country will become prosperous, that's why the government has closed down all institutions."

"So, BKMEA decided to keep its all member factories closed from March 25 to April 4," said the organization's chief and lawmaker AKM Salim Osman in a press release on Friday.

A big special incentive program has been announced by Prime Minister Sheik Hasina to shield the export-oriented industry from the economic decline triggered by the deadly virus.

"In this sense, all knitwear factories which have BKMEA membership were ordered to shut down until April 4, in line with the government decision to close entities," Salim added.

In BKMEA instructions, the businessman also asked the workers to stay in their present places during the vacation.

"Factory owners will make them (laborers) understand that this is not Eid or any other festival. So, they should stay where they are now," he also said. 

Earlier on Friday, the country's apex trade body, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), advised its members to close the factories to stem the coronavirus spread. 

Bangladesh on March 8 reported its first cases of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, 48 people were infected with the epidemic, and of them five died.

The deadly virus first appeared on 31 December last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan. It has also continued expanding to newer nations. 

Since Friday, the latest epidemic had spread to 199 countries and territories, killing 24,368 individuals and infecting 542,360 people worldwide, according to Worldometer, a database tracking the number of confirmed infections of coronavirus and its fatalities.