Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh Police issued 476,394 movement passes that are required to go outside during the weeklong lockdown which started on April 14.
A total of 621,359 people had signed up for the pass till 10am Saturday and around 43,607 applications were being submitted every minute at one point, according to figures provided by Police Headquarters.
Meanwhile, the movement pass website had 172,597,903 visitors between 11am on April 13 and 10am on Saturday, said Police Headquarters’ Assistant Inspector General Md Sohel Rana.On April 12, the government issued a gazette notification announcing a set of restrictions to be followed during the weeklong strict lockdown till April 21 to curb the surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths.
On April 13, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Benazir Ahmed launched the movement pass app and started taking applications for the pass that will allow citizens to stay outside for up to three hours.
However, emergency service providers including journalists will not require the pass.
An individual seeking a movement pass has to provide his name, phone number, date of birth, destination details, valid identification (NID, passport, driving licence), and the reason for going outside.
The police will then issue an online pass after receiving the information and verifying it.
A pass can be used for one-way movement and another pass will have to be acquired for the subsequent return.
Bangladesh has been again seeing a steep rise in Covid-19 deaths and infections in the last few weeks.
