The government has announced a one-week nationwide lockdown from April 14 (Wednesday) to prevent coronavirus infections. From that day, a strict lockdown will continue from 6 am to midnight till April 21.
Although a special paragraph has been added to the upcoming lockdown on the activities of e-commerce and telecommunication companies, the latest notification does not contain any guidelines on the software sector.
The circular was issued on Monday (April 12) at 12 noon.
The circular excludes all government and non-government organizations associated with telephone and internet services from the ban, as well as the opportunity to buy, sell and supply food online or offline from 12 noon to 7 pm and from 12 midnight to 6 in the morning.
Prior to the lockdown, which will begin from April 14, the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) demanded that the software sector be declared an emergency service. However, there are no instructions in the new notification.
Asked about this, BASIS President Syed Almas Kabir said, “Everything is going on on software and IT.” As a result, the upcoming lockdown will have an adverse effect on the software sector and the people concerned with the sector.
He said, ‘This lockdown will definitely have an adverse impact on the software sector. It will have a bigger impact on the people as well as everything is running on software and IT, then it will not function properly. Banks, hospitals and educational institutions all run through IT.
The technology expert also commented that the new guidelines will hamper the operation of technology-based services.
He said, ‘The government knows that if the software company is closed, there will be a big problem. So we hope the ICT department will keep the sector out of lockdown. We have already written to the government to cover the emergency services.
According to the notification, all public and private institutions will be closed except for emergency services during the lockdown. All modes of transport (road, rail, sea, domestic and international) will be closed. However, during the closure, the officers and employees of these offices will be at their respective workplaces. And the industrial factories will abide by the hygiene rules. Factories have to bring and take workers under their own management.
