Bangladesh troops on streets to enforce lockdown

Bangladesh on Thursday deployed its army to enforce a nationwide lockdown, asking people to stay at home to stunt the spread of the new coronavirus.

On Wednesday, Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced that the government will provide free food and cash for the poor for the next six months.

Hasina also declared an incentive package for the country's export-oriented garment industry to help pay millions of workers.

Bangladesh's garment industry is the world's second largest after China, and the South Asian nation annually earns about $30 billion from exports of garment products, mainly to the United States and Europe.

The sector has employed about four million workers, mainly women from rural Bangladesh.

The manufacturing companies said many big orders had already been cancelled by the western buyers because of the impact of the deadly virus globally.

Streets in the capital city were mostly empty on Thursday, shops and shopping malls were closed while only vegetable markets and medicine stores were allowed to operate.

Experts say Bangladesh, a nation of 160 million people, is at the high risk of spreading COVID-19 as hundreds of thousands of people have returned to the country in recent weeks from Italy and other affected countries.

So far Bangladeshi authorities have confirmed five deaths and 44 cases of COVID-19.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.