Bangladesh garment factories reopen, while India looks to ease its lockdown

A medical worker sits inside a mobile test van for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) after she collected swabs from people to test, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, 27 April 2020 - Reuters

NEW DELHI/DHAKA (Reuters): More than 500 garment factories in Bangladesh that supply to global brands reopened yesterday after a month-long shutdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, while India considered ways to scale back its vast lockdown to reduce economic pain.

Some of the world’s biggest clothing firms including Gap Inc, Zara-owner Inditex and H&M source their supplies from Bangladesh, which allowed garment manufacturers in the capital Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong to resume work from the start of this week.

“We are making sure the workers wear masks, wash hands at the entrance, undergo temperature checks, and maintain physical distancing,” said Mohammad Hatem, vice president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

Bangladesh is home to around 4,000 garment factories employing 4.1 million workers, and industry groups for the sector had warned that the shutdown that began on 26 March could cause the country to lose $ 6 billion in export revenue this financial year.

Competitors such as Vietnam, China and Cambodia have already resumed operations, Hatem said. Bangladesh reported nearly 500 new cases of the coronavirus yesterday to take the total to 5,913 of whom 152 have died. While the country has allowed garment and other factories to reopen, much of the rest of the economy is still shut down and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told Government officials yesterday that schools and colleges may have to remain closed until September if the situation did not improve.

“We will reopen educational institutions when the situation improves,” she said.

In India, where a strict shutdown for its 1.3 billion people is due to end on 3 May, Prime Minister Narendra held talks with the chief ministers of the country’s 28 States to decide on what restrictions should be kept in place.

Modi said the risk from the virus was far from over, although India had been able to save thousands of lives because of its extended lockdown, a Government statement quoted him as saying.

India has reported 28,379 confirmed infections of the coronavirus, according to Government data yesterday, the highest number in Asia after China. So far 886 people have died, nowhere near the levels the US, Italy and Spain have suffered.

Health experts say India is testing far less per capita than many countries and the virus is lurking undetected. Still, a surge in hospitalisations has not happened across the country, strengthening the case for lifting some curbs.

“(The) Prime Minister said that we have to give importance to the economy as well as continue the fight against COVID -19,” the Government statement said. India’s economy, which was already growing at its slowest pace in years before the pandemic struck, could contract in the fiscal year that began in April, private economists say, making jobs even scarcer for its young population.