Hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers have returned to major cities, besieging train and bus stations after the government declared export factories could reopen despite the deadly coronavirus wave.
- As coronavirus infections and deaths hit record levels, authorities had ordered factories, offices, transport, and shops to close from 23 July to 5 August and confined people to their homes for a week. Larger factories that supply top brands in Europe and North America had been excluded from the nationwide lockdown order.
- Earlier this week, the government gave the go-ahead for the country’s 4,500 garment factories, which employ more than four million people, to reopen, sparking a rush back to industrial cities this week.
- In South Korea, it posted a sharp increase in its coronavirus cases on Wednesday. 1725 cases, an increase of more than 500 on the previous day were reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Total infections rose to 203,926, with 2,106 deaths.
- China has responded to the spike in Covid cases with a dramatic tightening of travel restrictions across the country. The latest outbreak has so far infected more than 400 people in 25 cities, including the capital city Beijing, reports our correspondent Helen Davidson.
- Covid-19 hospitalizations are surging across the US and stretched hospitals are warning that the overwhelming majority of coronavirus patients are unvaccinated and their serious sickness preventable.
- More than 50,000 people were hospitalized across the US as of Monday, according to the US health department. This is significantly fewer people than during the peak in cases, deaths, and hospitalizations this January, but similar to the rates last summer when coronavirus vaccines were still in development.
Meanwhile, New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s soaring popularity has teetered on the country’s slow road to vaccination. This week, polling in New Zealand indicated some of the gloss may be fading from the Ardern government’s second term, which has enjoyed sparingly high popularity over the past year.
