Combating COVID-19 Pandemic in Bangladesh: A Memorandum from Developing Country

test diagnostic Abstract This paper is purposed to delineate the current situation around Bangladesh as well as impacts of Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) around the country and how the people over here are encountering this threatening pandemic. COVID-19 is an international epidemic that has got rapid wide-spread throughout different countries of the world to date. After its first outbreak in China different continents started to make sense and get aware against COVID-19 though, due to its special strategy of transmission several countries have been quite deteriorated preventing it. All the countries are moving at their best forward to find out any solution so that whole world could get rid of this horrifying situation as soon as possible. The authors here have reported an overview of how the outbreak of COVID-19 had put its commence in Bangladesh and to date how people over here have been tracing the way to tackle this havoc. Also, the changes that have brought around due to the crisis have offered us some fertile lessons that are enunciated here by the authors. To conclude, special considerations are anticipated to be highlighted pertaining COVID-19 outbreak in Bangladesh.


Introduction
With 5.17 million confirmed cases in 213 countries, the recent COVID-19 pandemic is intimidating the world population. Among the infected ones,1.99 million people have recovered while 336 thousand infected individuals have already passed away. Hence, till date, the recovery and death rate are respectively reported 38.49% and 6.60%.
This communicable disease is caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) strain of beta coronavirus (a subfamily of coronavirus). It is a newly emerged strain that binds to the ACE-2 receptor of ciliated bronchial epithelial cells as well as type-2 pneumocytes of human lung [1]. The origination of COVID-19 took place in China. More specifically, the initial outbreak of novel Corona virus was recorded in Hunan Seafood Market of Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. After the analysis of phylogenetic tree and multiple sequence alignment, it was estimated that, pangolin acted as an intermediate host in transmitting the novel coronavirus from bat to human.
The disease is transmitted to non-infected human from infected human's droplets which are generated during sneeze or cough. Also, direct respiratory tract contact or other respiratory secretions may cause this disease [2]. The virus may stay for 2-3 hours in the air. In addition, if infected person touches any surface or object like phone, table, doorknob, laptop etc. it survives there for 8 hours and 2-3 hours in the air. The incubation period of this disease is 2-14 days. Novel coronavirus infects the upper and lower respiratory tract. Some mild symptoms of this disease are initially cold, cough, sore throat, mild muscle pain, appetite loss, fever and diarrhoea. The critical symptoms of this disease are: pneumonia, shortness of breathing and organ failure that may lead to death. People with comorbidity (having diabetes, blood pressure, heart disease and kidney disease) or acute respiratory disease like asthma, are more vulnerable to its infection [3,4]. In order to confirm whether a symptomatic or asymptomatic person is infected or not, diagnostic tests including RT-qPCR, serological test (Rapid diagnostic test or neutralization assay), CRISPR-CAS-12 are performed. Among them, RT-qPCR is the most frequently used test worldwide [5].
In the context of Bangladesh, the disease has already scattered to all 64 districts and the country is currently considered as the third highest in the number of people died among the South Asian countries till date [4]. With notable limitations, country's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) commenced the test for Covid-19 through the method RT qPCR and it became widespread across the country. The more the number of regular test increases, the more patients are found tested positive, in a proportional manner. However, mandatory lockdown was declared by Bangladesh government to prevent the severe community transmission in this densely-populated country but unfortunately, being a lower middle income country with people under poverty line, the lockdown is hardly maintained by day labourers, beggars, garment workers and so forth. Hence, social awareness about COVID-19 is found barely satisfactory in Bangladesh which should be brought immediately under sincere concernment by the government of Bangladesh.

COVID-19 Outbreak in Bangladesh
COVID-19 is an infectious disease that was identified for the first time in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, China in December 2019 and then it spread rapidly throughout the world [6,7]. After almost three and a half months of the first COVID-19 patient detected in China, three coronavirus cases (including two men and one women) have been tested positive for the first time on 8 March 2020 in Dhaka, Bangladesh [8] where two of them returned from Italy and the other is a relative of one of the returnees. Their ages were between 20 and 35 years, which was ensured by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR). They were hospitalized in Dhaka but the hospital name was kept secret. Three of the family members of them were being kept in quarantine after coming in contact with the COVID patients. 105586 total cases have been confirmed worldwide at that time [9]. Two of the COVID-19 patients had recovered after four days of first identified in Dhaka. On March 18, 2020 a total 14 cases (including 4 newly diagnosed) were confirmed and the first coronavirus patient died (Figure 1) in Bangladesh that was the 11th day of the country's first coronavirus case. The patient was a 70-year-old man who had several pre-existing complications like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), hypertension, heart disease and diabetes. In the meantime, total confirmed cases were 191,127 along with 7807 death tolls [10]. To decrease the risk of acute respiratory infection transmission, WHO suggested some fundamental guidelines i.e. avoiding close contact with people who have acute respiratory infection symptoms, frequently washing hands (particularly if physical contact with patients or their environment), practicing etiquette rules like maintaining social distance, covering coughs and sneezes with disposable tissues etc., and enhancing standard infection prevention and control practices in emergency departments of the hospitals [11].    (Figure 2). In fact, the Dhaka district, belonged to Dhaka division, currently contains the highest amount of COVID-19 patients (79.03%), followed by Narayanganj (Figure 3). Narayanganj, the neighbouring district of Dhaka city, has become the epicentre of coronavirus infection in Bangladesh since the majority portion of the patients started roaming around from here. Coronavirus patients have been detected in many districts who recently returned from Narayanganj.  The government has taken measures to prevent local transmission by locking down the transportation system (including Rail, Water, Air and Road transport). Bangladesh Police, Army, Navy, and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have been working on the frontline to ensure social distancing among the people and to keep an eye on the locked down houses around the country. All shops, super shops and kitchen markets throughout the country are declared by the government to be closed by 7 pm and the grocery stores located in residential areas by 2 pm but drug stores and emergency services remained out of the purview of the orders. the virus is killing more men than women worldwide [12]. The actual reason is not revealed yet by the scientists, but they suspect that, biological differences between men and women, unhealthy habits like smoking and underlying health issues among men could be influencing factors for this reason. To date 2,23,841 COVID-19 tests have been conducted till May 22, 2020 in Bangladesh whereas the total number of confirmed cases were 30,205 so far (Figure 6).

Figure 6:
The bar graph shows a comparison between total COVID-19 tests and total confirmed cases from April 30 to May 22, 2020. The more tests conducted, the higher number of confirmed cases found.
At the beginning of the outbreak in Bangladesh, few tests were performed due to several limitations and so the positive cases were very low by then. But, since early of May, the amount of test as well as the laboratories and involved volunteers have been raised significantly and thus, the active cases have also been found massive. Till now, Bangladesh has got 42 COVID-19 laboratories across the country [13].
Unfortunately, Bangladesh has recorded the lowest recovery rate within the duration of first 53 days after Covid-19 infection, compared to other South Asian countries. But it started overtopping in a gradual manner since the beginning of May and the recovery rate proceeded at a considerably faster pace. However, a sharp and successive increase is shown in rate of confirmed case and death as well which is also a matter of concern as people aren't getting healed equally with the rate of active case. Currently, till May 22, the total amount recovery has reached around 6100 with 20 percent of recovery rate [14] (Figure 7).  amount of people died with no COVID-19 positive test (Figure 08). However, through conducting a pilot survey via collecting news from national newspapers and electronic media, some cases have been found where patients tested negative before death but positive results have found revived after recollecting samples from dead patients. This may be the reason why many of the patients died with COVID-19 symptoms but with test negative. Henceforth, the fact could be further analysed and highlighted as well.

Mystery of SARS-CoV-2 Genome isolated in Bangladesh
The process of genome sequencing is simply the identification or determination of the whole DNA sequence of any organism which conveys the information about how genes are arranged within.  Again when observed closely, among those nine mutations within the viral genome, one was found which results in a non-silent mutation in its Spike protein. The mutation utterly leads to an amino acid change i.e. Aspartate to Glycine at the 614th position of the Spike protein (D614G). It is predicted that this mutation of the virus has the cause for spread out quickly among the European and American populations. This creates an extra serine protease or elastase cleavage site close to the Open Reading Frame (ORF) S1 and S2 junction of the Spike protein ( Hence, researches are concertedly going on across the country to explore the genome and thus trying to come to an end. So, this issue should immediately bring under sincere concern by the government as soon as possible.

Impact on the Overall Economy
Economy of Bangladesh has a high dependency on garments and agricultural sector. Being a low medium income country, it may face economic crisis due to COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, garments industry contributed to 84% of the country's exports that worth $40 billion. But this year due to lockdown situation, this industry has to cancel numerous orders and hold off orders worth nearly $3 billion. At present,450 spinning mills, 850 weaving mills and 250 dyeing factories which are directly linked to the Garment industry are at risk of loss. Around 10 lack people are employed in these mills. Garment sector is also related to packaging industry which is also affected by COVID-19 situation.
Moreover, 59 banks and 46 general insurance companies count on the garment sector for running their business. As a poverty alleviation scheme, government has declared over 1.0 trillion BDT (over 11 billion USD) which is nearly 3.6 percent of Bangladesh's gross domestic product (GDP) for various sectors including the agriculture and garments. This will provide soft bank loans and aid people that are victim of COVID-19 situation.
Transport sector is having difficult times in this pandemic. The number of trucks and lorries had surged remarkably with the pace of the country's nearly $100 billion exports and imports. But the to this sector may become jobless in this hard situation.
According to the estimation of Dhaka University Health and Economy Institute, from 26 March to 26 April, the total loss in economy was around 100,000 crores. There is a loss of about 3300 crores in agricultural (200 crore), industrial (1131 crore) and service (2000 crore) sector and the loss will increase with the extension of lockdown.
The experts found out that export and import economy has come to a standstill. Bangladesh will get poorer if the lockdown continues for a long time. In town hawker, rickshaw puller, auto rickshaw driver, bus driver, waiter, day labourer and in the village, farmer, fisherman, trucks and lorries are static due to lockdown situation. There is a chance that 10 lakh people related, shopkeeper, emigrants will face hardship in their daily lives. 40% poultry industry is driven by woman and it may face loss of 3350 crore taka according to the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council.
During COVID-19 epidemic, unemployment of Bangladeshi emigrants is reflecting a negative impact on remittance. The remittance is reduced by 36 crore dollars within the last 2 months which is also hampering the overall economy of Bangladesh. World Bank (WB) has recently reported that, due to COVID-19epidemic and shutdown, remittance may decline by almost 22 percent in this financial year of 2019-2020 in Bangladesh and thus, it could come down to $1,400 crore in 2020, which was $1,830 crore in 2019.
Besides all these, price hike of daily commodities has also been added to the economy. Daily essentials are subjected to price hike amid COVID-19. Due to supply disruption and scarcity of kitchen market, the prices of oil, rice, flour are surging. The price of edible oil has witnessed 8-10 % rise. Moreover, 38-70 BDT per kg rice is being sold in markets. However, the Government will launch a special open market sale of coarse rice at 10 BDT per kg across city corporation for the poor people.

Impact on Agricultural Sector
Agriculture is the backbone of economy of Bangladesh. According to World Bank, it is the income source of 87% rural people. In fact, 11% city dwellers are also directly related to agricultural sector. Around 45.7% labour power are recruited in farming. Not only that, the contribution of agriculture on GDP of Bangladesh is 16.6%. This information indicates the importance of agriculture for Bangladesh. The national lockdown strategy is imposing a bad impact on overall economy. Many farmers are unable to work on their lands, also, are not accessible to some markets for selling their agro products. Moreover, severely hampered transportation, inadequacy of labour and price hike can act as impediments in the fresh food supply chain.
In poultry industry,83000 poulterers with investment of 42000 crores are facing heavy loss due to ongoing country-wide lockdown for COVID-19 pandemic. Their daily egg production is 4.25 crore and because of fall of demand, they have to sell 1/3 of total eggs at 45% lower price. In overall poultry farms, 3500 tons of broiler chicken production/day takes place. According to the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council, the price of broiler chicken has fallen to 55 BDT (0.65 USD) per kilogram. Demand of broiler chickens dramatically dipped in lockdown situation and 1.65 crore 1 day old chicks are discarded every week to mitigate loss. More importantly, jobs of 47 lakh workers in poultry industry is endangered right now.
The country's dairy and fish producers are facing huge number of economic loss. Total number of dairy farms country-wide is about 2.50 lac. Per day milk produced and supplied for selling is 1.5 crore litres. But due to lockdown strategy, the transportation has become limited and also customer demand plummeted. Milk price has dropped by around 35 percent and 25 lakh litres are remaining unsold. The employment of 1.2 crore people is at risk in dairy sector.
The demand for fish substantially plunged. Consequently, many hatcheries are closed down. Also, crab, shrimp, and fish producers are facing frequent trade embargo that is resulting in economic loss. For example: Bangladesh exports 70 % of the crabs in the Chinese market. Lockdown has stopped the exportation. Hence crab industry of Bangladesh is going to face significant loss. Production of dry fish are also reduced by 40 percent due to the corona epidemic.
In order to sustain food security and socio-economic development, the vulnerability of farming communities should be lessened by the Government and nongovernment organisations.

Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health of the Patients
Mental health of a person includes emotional, psychological and social well-being. For a COVID-19 patient, the negligence of surrounding people and social discrimination is worse than COVID-19 disease itself. In our country, in several cases, if a person is confirmed as COVID-19 positive, he including his family members are subjected to harassment of neighbour and society and sometimes they are ostracized or forced to leave the society.
Besides all these, a COVID-19 patient remains over stressed and nervous conditions. After getting admitted into hospital, the patient may witness deaths every day in his ward which may affect his mental strength badly.
To encourage patients of COVID-19, the doctor, nurses should be compassionate to them. Sometimes courage can help the patient in early recovery.

Influence of COVID-19 on Education System
The total number of students in Bangladesh is approximately 23907151. Among them, primary, secondary and post-secondary level students are consecutively 16230000,7400000 and 277151.To tackle the breakout of COVID-19, the government declared closing down of all educational institutions on 18 March, 2020. Not only that, Higher Secondary School Certificate examination was postponed by Ministry of Education.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina also declared that if COVID-19 situations don't get better, all institutions will remain close until September. This closure for a long period can cause some problems: The public and private universities may face session jam if the classes and exams are not taken on time. Some universities have semester system, which means six months per session. So, there is an immense possibility of session jam in almost all universities.
Many schools, private universities and a few public universities are taking online classes in order to prevent the session jam. But, this is not actually a fair way for taking classes according to many students and teachers. Bangladesh do not have a strong platform for taking online classes. Teachers are using meeting applications such as ZOOM for taking classes. Moreover, access of internet requires data purchase or WiFi connection. Students who live in remote areas do not have stable network. Also, data purchase is not possible for students who are under financial crisis due to COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, some students of a specific class are deprived of online classes. Also some students are indifferent to joining online classes due to lack of social interaction between students and teachers. HSC examination has been postponed which may delay the admission of college students in universities and other institutions.
Bangladesh Government has taken some steps such as: keeping the universities, schools and colleges open on holidays that means taking classes for all 7 days of week after the lockdown strategy cancellation. Also, UNICEF is working along with Bangladesh government to offer fruitful remote learning programmes through TV, mobile phone and Internet platforms for 42 million school students. UNICEF has also aided in producing guides to help teachers performing online classes. Notwithstanding, Bangladesh government and educational institutions should come forward to provide with proper facilities for online classes, i.e., ensuring financial support for students.

Impact of COVID-19 on Culture and Religious Beliefs
The lockdown strategy taken by government due to COVID-19 outbreak has been extended several times. Religious gatherings have been proved to be a medium for spreading the COVID-19.
Performing janazah salah at a large scale gathering is prohibited by government. But violating it, around 100000 people gathered in the janazah of Maulana Jubayer Ahmed Ansari, a popular Islamic teacher of Rahmania madrassa. In addition, Millions of people had expectations to congregate in mosques for performing tarabi prayer during Ramadan. Similar to the order of Saudi government, Bangladesh government allowed only 12 people in a mosque including mosque officials and advised majority of people to perform prayer at home.
Moreover, many people go for shopping during Eid season. In order to prevent community transmission, most of the markets and supershops such as Bashundhara, Jamuna Future Park, Newmarket and shops all over the country decided together to keep shops closed during Ramadan. Inspite of all these, small group of people are still going for shopping by neglecting COVID-19 situation. Furthermore, any kind of arrangement of iftar (evening meals that mark the breaking of the fasting) party or any gathering on Eid has been banned by the government. Not only that, some people are still returning their village home from the town and thus getting crowded at the docks which has recently brought under concern by the government. Hence, docks have been closed and transport availability has been lessened in greater amount by the law enforcement forces. It is a matter of concern that a huge number of patients are remaining undetected everyday which may worsen the situation day by day. However, the number of detection is increasing every day and synchronously positive cases are also rising. Unfortunately, the test of all the suspected cases per day cannot be performed and they need to wait for call helplessly for days or weeks. Meanwhile, some undetected people die with COVID-19 symptoms and later their samples are tested to ensure the cause of death. However, the suspected and asymptomatic as well as those who came in contact with patient should be tested without any delay by increasing the number of tests. This insufficiency of test is due to lack of experienced individuals for detecting COVID-19. Also, different universities and research organisations holding PCR machines are involved in COVID-19 detection that are not adequate enough to run the test of all the patients altogether. Some machines are also previously damaged, which may not show result with accuracy However, the collaboration of more institutions (research and educational) and laboratories (public and private) should be ensured by the government for rapid test of COVID-19 as early as possible.

Paucity of Protective Equipment
In

Treatment Facilities All Over the Country
Bangladesh is an overpopulated country compared to the number of its health care providers. Modern treatments are also not available in each corner as Bangladesh is not much developed. There exists the lack of availability of necessary equipment and machines required to deal with COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, there is a possibility that many COVID-19patients may die without treatment.

Death of Health Service Providers
Currently, doctor and patient ratio in Bangladesh is 1: 2500, that is the 2nd lowest among South Asian However, incentives are declared by government for doctors and nurses who will treat the COVID-19 patients. Not only that, training programmes are arranged for health workers for aiding and treated COVID-19 patients of distant areas.

Availability of Hospitals and Equipment
Some public and private hospitals are approved by government for the treatment of COVID-19.
The following hospitals are providing services for COVID-19 patients:

Breakthrough of Possible Discovery of Treatment
The World Health Organisation has chosen an antiviral drug called Remdisivir after couple of experiments which is an antiviral drug that was used for the effective treatment of Ebola. This drug showed positive result against SARS-Cov-2 in an experiment conducted on model animal [16]. However, in Bangladesh, hospitals are using some controversial medicines such as hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, Azithromycine for the treatment protocol of COVID-19. But Beximco Pharmaceuticals has launched the first generic version of antiviral drug Remdesivir, named Bemsivir for the first time in the world on 21 May, 2020. Remdesivir is a drug that inhibits viral RNA synthesis and thus it stops replication of SARS-CoV-2 [17]. U.S. FDA has allowed it as "Emergency Use Authorisation" for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
Another approach was from Professor Dr Tarek Alam, head of medicine of Bangladesh Medical College and Hospital, who along with his team frequently used antiprotozoal medicine named Ivermectin in a single dose with an antibiotic called Doxycycline that demonstrated an astounding result in curing some COVID-19 patients. Around 60 COVID-19 positive patients with respiratory issues were prescribed the drug by Dr. Tarek and his medical team. After second test of those patients in IEDCR, it was confirmed that the patients who were under the research turned out to be COVID-19 negative. According to Dr. Tarek and his medical team, they were recovered within 4 days after applying the combination of medicine. These drug combinations will not cause any side effect. According to them, the overall cost for medicine is approximately 30 BDT. For the approval of their medicine, they have contacted DGHS (Directorate General of Health Services) and other government organizations. Also, the trials and study for success rate and side effects have already been commenced by DGHS. If it turns out to be successful, it will be a global breakthrough discovery by Bangladeshi doctors in the history of corona treatment.

Community Transmission Can't Be Prevented
Till date, there are 30,205 confirmed cases of COVID-19 according to IEDCR. All 65 districts of Bangladesh had COVID-19 patients as of 22 May, 2020. According to many positive cases, none of them were immigrant nor any of their family members or relatives returned from abroad. Hence, it is a vivid indication that community transmission has begun. Many people are not concerned about dreadfulness of this disease. They are unnecessarily going out of house to the markets for shopping and are not abiding by the WHO protocols properly. The community transmission exceeded in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Chittagong because people of these districts however violate the lockdown and many emigrants did not maintain quarantine. Also, social distancing is a very difficult task in a densely populated country like Bangladesh. As a result, the number is increasing exponentially day by day. Again, some people died who were suspected to be infected with COVID-19. Later, many of their result turn out to be positive for COVID-19. Some deaths were recorded in the district isolation centres. At the beginning, tests of suspected ones were only conducted in IEDCR. Later, government provided with testing facilities in other divisions. In order to decrease the community transmission, there is no alternative to increasing test for COVID-19. So, the test facility should be ensured for people all over the country for prohibiting the community transmission as soon as possible.

Reasons behind the Vulnerability of Bangladeshi People throughout the Country
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics,3 crore and 40 lack people are poor in Bangladesh and 1.75 crore people among them live below poverty line. Poverty is a root cause indicating why people are violating lockdown. People who are at high risk of COVID-19 infection are: elder people(age group more than 50), day labourers and people with comorbidities. Susceptibility to this disease is much higher for elder people as their immune system is weak for producing antibody against corona virus. Therefore, they require intensive based treatment and ventilator. Some Day labourers, rickshaw pullers, hawkers, garment workers are more exposed for this infection because they need to go outside for daily earning unless they have to starve. They live in slums which is not a clean place and might increase the possibility of infection. Besides, beggars do not have houses to live in which makes them vulnerable to infection. In addition, aged people should not go outside for working in office, factories, shops etc places because every day they might come in contact of their colleagues and others. Imperative support such as fundamental daily needs such as food, relief, rehabilitation for deprived people may abate their hardship and decrease the possibility of getting infected or infecting others. For example, the government has announced over $11 billion stimulus package for various sectors including the agriculture and garments to provide soft bank loans and to aid people that are victim to COVID-19 situation.

Bangladesh Has Got Rohingya Refugee
More than 1.1 million rohingya refugees are present in Cox bazar.They are living in camp which is constrained and there is a risk that if a few refugees are infected,it will be devastating for the whole camp.Again,3.3 million local people abide in Cox bazar.A news that is horrifying the people is one confirmed case of COVID-19 till 14 May, 2020. If somehow community transmission takes place, the number of patients will exceed and many people will be succumbed to death.Also,there is lack of ventilators in Cox bazar. Only 10 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds are available for 1.1 million people in one local hospital. However,social awareness should be raised properly in Rohingya camps and number of ventilators and ICU should be increased in nearby hospitals to tackle upcoming crisis.

Special measures from the Government of Bangladesh
Due to this epidemic, not only the governmental organizations but also the non-governmental or private organizations are trying altogether to fight against this novel pandemic concertedly. Different social organizations were always aware with any kind of immediate steps and still proceeding with serving the defected and deprived people in various ways. However, our government was concerned since the outbreak was commenced in Bangladesh and still trying to fight with this pandemic in different probable ways. The momentous measures taken by the government are depicted below in brief.

Economic Stimulus Measures
Especial economic measures taken by Bangladesh Bank is given below.  Bangladesh Bank (BB) reduced required Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) of other banks from 5.5% to 4% on bi-weekly average basis and 5% to 3.5% on daily basis feasible from 15 April. Repo interest rate also reduced from 6% to 5.25% that was effective from 12 April.  The banks were instructed not to deduct any charges against late payment of credit card bill during the pandemic.  Bangladesh Bank postponed charging interest on loans from customers.  BB permitted foreign owned companies to take short-term loans from their parent companies.

Package-1
A loan facility of approximately USD 3,529 million, with the interest rate of 9%, generated to provide working capital facilities to the affected industries and service sector organizations in short term through the bank system. Half of the interest on the loan is to be paid by the client whereas the rest will be paid by government.

Package-2
A loan facility of approximately USD 2,353 million, with the interest rate of 9%, is created to provide working Capital Benefits to Small (Cottage Industries) and Medium Enterprises. 4% loan is to be paid by small and medium enterprises and the remaining 5% will be paid by the government to the concerned bank.

Package-3
The current size of the Extending the Benefits of Export Development Fund (EDF), under the Block to Block LC, is declared to be increased from USD 3.5 billion to USD 5 billion in purpose of increasing the import of raw materials. Subsequently, an additional approximately USD 1,500 million will be added to the EDF fund. However, the current interest rate for EDF will be reduced from 2.73% to 2%.

Package-4
Bangladesh Bank generates a new loan facility of approximately USD 589 million named Pre-shipment Credit Refinance Scheme with the interest rate of 7%.

Package-5
An emergency manifesting package has been announced by the government of approximately USD 589 million to pay the salaries / allowances of workers and employees from export oriented industries.  For agricultural sector, the government of has announced a package titled 'Special Incentive Refinancing Scheme for Agriculture Sector of approximately USD 589 million to provide financial support to the farmers in rural areas.  Another package of approximately USD 1060 million has been allocated to boost up crop production amidst the pandemic.  Approximately USD 15 million to rehabilitate the farmers during or after pandemic, while approximately USD 6 million for the farmers already affected by natural inversions and cooperatives agriculture and approximately USD 9 million have been allocated to expand new crops and for technological advancements in agriculture.  Approximately USD 23.5 million has been allocated to provide with the machineries and seeds among farmers and approximately USD 4.1 million has been allocated to buy Aus seeds and fertilizers, while approximately USD 4.25 million for irrigation. v) 180 combined harvesters and 137 reapers have been allocated to the farmers of the haor regions on emergency basis to alleviate the possible shortage of laborers during the harvesting period of boro crop amidst COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the government has determined to distribute nearly 800 combined harvesters and 400 reapers among farmers soon. vi) Approximately USD 12 million has been allocated by the government to further mechanize or digitalize the agriculture sector. Besides that, many local companies as well as international financial institutions like World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) etc. are providing emergency funds to strengthen efforts to battle the corona pandemic. Recently, World Bank has approved $100 million financing to prevent and respond to the outbreak in Bangladesh.

7.
Lessons to be learnt from COVID-19 The recent horrifying situation created by COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the whole world with great intensity. This pandemic somehow drastically changed the life of approximately 7 billion earth-dwellers. However, this situation is not different for Bangladesh too. It has halted the way of life people used to have before the outbreak. Industries have almost stoodstill, business and trades are jeopardized because of lockdown. All these incidents are hampering the national and in a word, the world's economy. Yet, COVID-19 has taught us about some amazing as well as momentous facts that previously we were unaware about.

 Practice of Frugality Is Highly Important
In this COVID-19 situation, the thing for which we are going to crave the most is money. We need to learn the art of frugality whether it is about our clothing or foods or daily commodities. Buying unnecessary things should be avoided by hook or by crook. In this situation, spending money to buy luxury of life is nothing but a stupidity as we don't know where is the end of this lockdown! Rather, wealthy people can donate some money for the poor, sick and health workers that are fighting for our lives.  Biodiversity Can Be Recreated by Changing People's Lifestyle Bangladesh was losing its natural beauty day by day because of amplified pollution, mismanagement of tourist spots and so forth. Surprisingly, the disappearing beauty is almost reappearing amidst COVID-19 situation. The credit of this miracle solely goes to lockdown held due to pandemic. Spell bounding scenarios are depicted in the womb of cox bazar sea beaches: dolphins are seen roaming fearlessly, thousands of tiny red crabs are seen washing ashore on beach, deers are seen wandering here and there, turtles are roaming in the saint martin beach and so forth. It's not just about the Cox's bazar, the same thing is applied for Sundarban, Sylhet, Hill side areas, Sanctuary etc. In fact, deforestation has declined at a great rate by refilling the nature with greenery. Plastics are no more polluting the water and diversity of fishes are re-established. Many industries are closed, as a result no more producing smokes to pollute the air of our country. The traffic jam is drastically reduced to almost null in the towns and so the carbon emission. Nature is enjoying its fullest while we are stuck at home. To recapitulate, the nature has got back its beauty giving us a strong and true message that how badly it was treated by us earlier.

 Field of Medicine Should Be Brought Under
Greater Concern Another lesson we have learnt from the pandemic is how crucial doctors and nurses are for this world to survive. They are working day and night relentlessly to save people by endangering their own lives. So, it is high time we honoured them for their work from now and respect them wholeheartedly. Again, looking at the world's state, one should not think twice to choose medicine as their subject of study. Also, funding in biological research should be a matter of concern to be highlighted to save the next decades.

 'Work from Home' Method Could Be Inaugurated in Workplaces
Lockdown has made it compulsory to close down all the offices. Maximum company and office has started the tradition 'work from home'. If we look at the online banking fact, most of the banks are supporting working from home. Another example is, in the companies like Google, Facebook, YouTube etc their officials don't need to come to office and continue their work from home. Now the head of offices and companies are planning to create virtual offices instead of traditional ones. Subsequently, the companies will no longer need to pay office rent every month of the year and they can smoothly run their business either. People with strong internet connection can work from home and won't need to come to office.
 Online Business Will Get More Popularity development of application for online business such as shopping, food etc. will become available because people in lockdown have become habituated to online shopping (i.e. daraz, alibaba.com) and ordering food online (i.e. foodpanda). So, even after lockdown, there is possibility that online shopping and ordering food will have the same demand and attention as it is getting right now. There is a possibility that entrepreneurship through online food or clothing or selling products can be a source of income for women and men both.  COVID-19 Will Reduce the Rush of Big Cities and Towns Internet based jobs or business offered from different office and companies will be made available for people all around the world. People won't need to have physical presence for job as they can work easily from home. In fact, many people will move from city to small towns in order to reduce their daily cost. They will realize that, living and working in traffic free, peaceful village area surrounded by natural beauty is better than staying in expensive apartments of big towns. They may establish a strong WiFi connection for working from their home town. Furthermore, any international company from any corner of the world can hire people. The term 'globalization' will be broader in sense by the blissful action of internet. Companies can hire any talented people from any place of the world and also that person won't need visa or immigration for working in that company. For example, a person of Bangladesh can work in google company of America if he is having a strong internet connection, laptop, IT skill and degree. All these events are pointing that the people with computer skill who are annoyed with the noise, pollution and traffic of city may soon be immigrated to small towns for living a happy life with family. Therefore, a huge change will be visible in city after this COVID-19 situation. So, it's clear that we should develop IT skills, freelancing, video editing etc. if we want to lead a decent life when the life will be free from COVID-19.  Educational System Should Professionally Include Online Classes Some national and international universities, medical college, school, college and other institutions etc. are arranging online classes to prevent session jam. Most of the Bangladeshi students are not habituated to online classes. But this pandemic has made it mandatory for many of them to continue online classes. However, this procedure may stay long due to lockdown. Even after lockdown, Institutions will continue arranging online classes, courses, sessions etc to ensure proper education for students. Hence, to lead an upgraded life and for better future after COVID-19, we could upgrade our way of regular life. Again, our compassion for relatives, neighbours, friends as well as for the whole nation is an obligation to fight the after effects of COVID-19.
The facts mentioned above are however the lessons of COVID-19 for us. This pandemic is going to make huge difference in the upcoming world economy and majority of the people will be afflicted with severe poverty. After this pandemic, the world will be facing a revolutionary change.
Not only that, this change will last for a long time. Many of our lives will be fully different. To adapt ourselves with this change, we must modernize our perceptions of traditional lifestyle as well as take some fruitful steps.

Concluding Remark
COVID-19 has greatly changed the global environment right away as well as revealed some disguised issues that need to be highlighted. According to WHO, Corona virus will never leave this planet, similar situations will cling us ever and anon. To tackle the crisis we are moving forward to, we should get prepared with necessary measures taken. Biomedical research should be widespread and more funded.
Health issues are to be paid with much more priority and its high time countries around the world approached concertedly with compassionate international cooperation established.