COVID-19 and Bangladesh: A study of the public perception on the measures taken by

the government

Ayesha Siddika1 Md. Didarul Islam2

Abstract: This research attempts to understand the public perception in Bangladesh

regarding the measures taken by the government. Corresponding to the fact that this is a war
like situation, this study has found that the measures taken by the Bangladesh government
should have been taken earlier and more robust measures are necessary to stop this pandemic.
Different government authorities partially failed to communicate the measures of the
government to the wider public audience. Moreover, this research finds that a proper
coordination among all the agencies would help to contain the disease with a continuous
lockdown and social distancing policy. Hospitals should be well equipped and frontline
fighters should be well protected as well.

Key words: COVID-19, Pandemic, Bangladesh, Public perception, measures

Introduction: The world been facing an unprecedented crisis causing thousands of deaths by
COVID-19 across the world. The World Health Organizations has declared COVID-19 a
pandemic on March 11, 2020 (WHO, 2020) for spreading almost all over the world.
Originating from Wuhan in Hubei province in December 2019, it soon spread rapidly in
China and subsequently in the other countries. As of April 05, 2020; 65,662 people were died
by COVID-19 and ,1213,9272 persons have been infected (John Hopkins, 2020). More than
252,391 people have been recovered from the disease as of April 05 (Ibid). Though the
highest infected rate is in USA (312,245), the highest death toll is in Italy 15,362. The
situation of the entire Europe and the USA has been degraded over the last few weeks
causing a significant rise and death of infection (BBC, 2020). Despite very strong health care
system, the Western big economies are struggling to curve the death toll. US President said
that he would be happy if the death toll is kept under 200,000 whereas UK is targeting to
keep the toll below 20,000 (The Guardian, 2020; BBC, 2020). But China, though having a
death toll of 3210 has been considered a successful country for containing the spread of
COVID-19. The number of deaths has been decreased significantly in China since March and
no new infected Chinese patient was found in the last week of March. China shut down the
Hubei province and the other cities and went for a rigorous lock down phase for two months
which enabled them to identify confirmed cases through tests and bringing the suspected and
infected people in dedicated hospitals. Strict measures taken by China including
institutionalised quarantine, isolation, dedicated hospital, social distancing etc. have been
proved highly effective (Zhao, 2020). In compare to these countries, the number of infected
cases in Bangladesh remained in control; 88 and death toll just 9 which raised some questions
in social media platforms. People have a mixed interpretation on the data that is delivered by
IEDCR (2020), Bangladesh. The country went for complete lock down since 26 th of March
for two weeks and it is to be extended till 14th April. The government has been reintegrating
social distancing and quarantine for all. In addition, they are claiming that Bangladesh is
ready for fighting COVID-19 despite Dhaka centric low number of tests and lack of Personal
Protective Equipment (PPE) for the frontline fighters including doctors, nurses, volunteers.
1
Lecturer, University of Dhaka, email: Ayesha.wrc@du.ac.bd

2
PhD researcher, University of Leeds; Assistant Professor, University of Dhaka, email- didar@du.ac.bd

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The response of different country differs due to social structure, economic capacity and
resources (Jones, 2020). That’s why the UK strategy of fighting COVID-19 might not be
same as China due to their political structures (Graham-Harrison, 2020). Corresponding to
this point, the Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared this fight as a war and
urged people to join the fight staying home (BBC, 2020). She asked the people to stay away
from rumours which has a detrimental effect in this crisis moment. Hence, the public
responses in social media is mixed. Why do the people have a disbelieve in IEDCR’s Data,
the formal organization to lead the COVID-19 fight? In these circumstances, this study
attempts to bring public opinion regarding different measures of the Bangladesh government
in academic field. The aim of this research is to understand to what extent the public
perception on the government’s measures corresponds to the facts. This research shows an
epistemological contribution regarding Public opinion and government’s measures to fight
COVID-19 in broader conceptual field which will significantly contribute the governments’
understanding on public perception.

Bangladesh’s response to COVID-19: Since the start of COVID-19 pandemic in last

December, Bangladesh got a long preparatory time to get prepared as the first confirmed case
was found in early March. Bangladesh soon facilitated the return of 312 students in China
who were studying in Wuhan and Hubei adjacent Universities and kept them quarantined at
Haji Camp, Dhaka (The Daily Star, 2020). In addition, government bought few thermal
scanners whereas few of them were dead soon. A mandatory temperature check was halted
for this reason. Besides, institutional quarantined was started very late for the confirmed
cases. For the returnees from abroad, only home quarantine was made the option unless he or
she has high temperature figured at the airport. From early March, few government ministers
including the health minister said that the government is ready to tackle the crisis. But some
of the cabinet ministers’ remarks on COVID-19 have made the government uncomfortable
(The Daily Star, 2020). Moreover, Bangladesh lacked dedicated hospitals, testing kits, labs,
training for the front-line fighters, PPEs etc. until 29 March. As of March 30, Bangladesh has
set up 10 dedicated hospitals for COVID-19 patients. The health Minister said that as of 29 th
of March, Bangladesh has 90,000 test kits but 60 percent of these kits were not gold
standards. That’s why IEDCR did not use those kits (The Ekattor, 2020). So far, Bangladesh
is one of the lowest testing countries in the world. They tested only a few cases despite nearly
800,000 calls in IEDCR’s hotline number.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressed to the nation on 25 March and 31 st March urging
people to stay at home. Her 25 th speech seems to be the main policy framework of her
government incorporating social, health and security measures in fighting COVID-19. She
told that the government is preparing specialised hospitals and establishing 27 testing labs
countrywide. She also told that her government is managing more testing kits. Apart from her
medical advices; she requested people to maintain social distancing and self-isolation. During
the lockdown period, the government would assist the low-income people in different
financial means whereas a bail out of 5 thousand crore Taka for the Garment industries was
declared. She ordered the government to fight any rumour and help the administration
accordingly.

Out of all measures, WHO (2020) is urging for two important social measures to be taken
countrywide; social distancing and self-isolation; and lockdown. Bangladesh government has
initiated social distancing since late March arguing that this method can contain the outbreak

2
of COVID-19. Social distancing is a method that keeps people isolated from meeting friends,
peers or any other person. It is a sort of social isolation. Jones (2020) defined social isolation
as that condition of total absence of contact between people and society. Scientific data and
academic researchers have also found that through social distancing model, the number of
infected persons can be reduced significantly (Zhou, 2020; Milne and Xie, 2020). For
instance, Milne and Xie (2020) in their research have found that the curve of infecting people
dropped significantly where social distancing was applied. Social distancing has been viewed
the best method to stop spreading this disease and almost every country is being advised to
follow this. The flatten curve will enable a slow spread of this virus and it will help to isolate
and treat the patients. China is an example who could control this virus from spreading after
two months through these social distancing and lock down methods. Scientists around the
world are also suggesting social distancing as the ultimate solution. So, Bangladesh’s position
of urging social distancing corresponds to the scientific advice. Different reports in media
(The Daily Star, 2020) showed that people of many places in Bangladesh despite a hard call
from the law enforcing agencies didn’t maintain distancing and they violated the rule. Albeit
social distancing is a must policy in this situation, it is difficult to make people obey this
method as it has severe economic and mental health impacts (Baker, 2020). People have
significant mental issues while staying home alone or with just family (Gao, et al, 2020).
Jones (2020) writes that a detrimental effect will be a by-product of social distancing if
measures are not taken to reduce this mental pressure for those who are staying home. This
was one of the reasons why UK prime minister delayed for going for complete shutdown
(BBC, 2020). Low income people will be affected heavily, and the Western world has
declared different contingency plan for them budgeting billions of dollars (Sky News, 2020).
For minimizing economic crisis faced by the poor, Bangladesh Prime Minister declared
72,750 crore BDT bailout for the RMG and other business sectors to minimise the economic
impact of COVID-19. The first 5000 crore will be for the RMG sectors, the second 30,000
will be given to the affected industries and service sectors as working capital as soft loan, the
third 20,000 crore will be disbursed to small and medium enterprises as working capital, the
fourth will be to increase the Bangladesh Banks Development Funds from 3.5 billion dollar
to 5 billion dollar so that they can help the importers of raw materials and the last 5000 crore
will be for Pre-shipment Credit Refinance Scheme under Bangladesh Bank (The Daily Star,
2020). These stimulus packages will be primarily a soft loan policy to assist the private
sectors in Bangladesh. But these packages surprisingly did not incorporate the agro-based
schemes. She requested people not to engage in panic buy and businessman not to be
inhuman in this crisis. Nonetheless, her packages lacked detail plan how low-income people
and people without fixed income would lead their lives during these lock down period. In
addition, Bangladesh Bank will not declare anyone as loan defaulter till next June (The
Dhaka Tribune, 25 March 2020). On the other hand, returnees from abroad are advised to
stay in 14day quarantine since late March (The Dhaka Tribune, 2020).

Bangladesh started locked down on 26th March shutting down all public and private offices
keeping only emergency services open (The Daily Star, 2020). WHO (2020) also advised
Bangladesh for going through a full or partial lockdown. Since the lock down situation,
Bangladesh found only a few new cases of COVID-19 with no causality (BBC, 2020).
Despite the criticism in media, there are few people died by cough and breathing problem in
few places in Bangladesh; IEDCR rejected any more cases. China in the face of rapid spread
of COVID-19 went for complete lock down shutting down all public private offices and
calling off the public transport (BBC, 2020). Lock down situation still lasts in some parts in
China and China showed that lock down slow down the spread and virus could be contained

3
only within the people who are infected. This method was applied in Italy very late. Other
European countries, UK, USA have followed the locked down method in face of significant
rise of number of cases. UK for instance imposed a lockdown on 23 rd of March when the
causality started rising significantly. Lockdown will not decrease the number of infected
cases, but it will decrease the chances of infecting new people and will help social isolation.
Qiu (2020) argued that one of the key reasons why China could stop the spread of this disease
after a certain period was massive lockdown along with quarantine and other public health
measures.

Methodology: Primarily a flexible research design was made considering the need of the
research problem (Schmitter, 2008). This study has been conducted by mixed method
research approaches; qualitative and quantitative approaches. Qualitative method which was
analytical and descriptive in nature enables this study to understand overall COVID-19
situation and to analyse the government measures. Data has been collected by using online
searches on COVID-19 related websites and Survey method, a popular method for collecting
quantitative data. Survey method is best suited for understanding the public perception from a
wide variety of groups. This method enabled this research to include a wide range of
population which represents public in broader sense. For academic articles, google scholar
and ResearchGate were searched. This data has been analysed along with the available
information from qualitative perspectives. After finding out the research problem, our
research team developed a set of questionnaires for survey. Survey was posted on Facebook
walls of the members of the research team and Facebook friends were asked to participate in
this survey. Survey was open line for 48 hours and 190 responses were collected. The
response rate was low because no professional agency was involved in this study to boost up
this Facebook post asking filling up survey forms. The survey responses were analysed
accordingly with statistical calculation.

Data Presentation and analysis:

Respondents and their knowledge on COVID-19

Out of 190 responses from this survey, 185 respondents have exposed their profession; either
as student or professional. 63.8 percent respondents were students in compare to 36.2 percent
professionals. The number of students took part in this survey is because students are more
active in using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter etc. In addition, researchers
have many followers who are their direct students. The respondents (n=189) who took part in
the survey seems to be aware of the facts of COVID-19. In response to the question to what
extent they have knowledge on Coronavirus, on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 designates
minimum knowledge and 5 designates very good knowledge, 73.4 percent responded that
they have good knowledge on COVID-19 whereas 3.2 percent respondent have low level of
knowledge. 23 percent have an average knowledge. The respondents were mainly
professionals and students over 18. That is why, most of them were aware of the facts of
COVID-19 through different media. Among the respondents, nearly 99 percent are
maintaining social distancing corresponding the government’s request.

Public support on the declaration of War against COVID-19 by the Prime Minister and
her bailout policy for Ready Made Garments (RMG)

4
Like many other world leaders including Italy, UK and USA (The BBC, 2020), the
Bangladesh Prime Minister has declared a war against COVID-19 (The Dhaka Tribune
2020). Most of the respondents have supported her position where 73.5 percent people have
supported the statement. 13.2 percent respondents did not support her position at all whereas
13.2 percent were not sure whether it was a war to be declared. The position of the
respondents depicts that they are also considering this situation a crisis not only for the
country with high death toll, but also for a country like Bangladesh where population density
is higher than any country of the world. If it once spread, the situation could be much worst
that the other states have anticipated earlier.

Bangladesh has declared a bailout of 5000 crore BDT for the RMG sectors (The Financial
Express, 2020). But more than 66 percent respondents consider that this amount is not
enough to cover a huge number of workers working in Readymade Garment sectors. They
think that this amount should be increased and extended for the low-income people. Though
9 percent people think that this money is enough for RMG as bailout, 24 percent people have
a neutral position in this regard.

Bangladesh's capacity of fighting COVID-19 and health system

COVID-19 has become a pandemic (WHO, 2020) and it knows no border. Every country
either rich or poor has been fighting COVID-19. Countries like Italy or Spain who have very
good health care system failed to contain it and the number of deaths in those countries are
relatively high. On this circumstance, it is difficult for a country like Bangladesh to fight
COVID-19 with ample of limitations. This has been reflected in the respondents’ responses
where 86.1 percent people think that Bangladesh does not have the capacity of fighting
COVID-19. Only 13.9 percent respondents have a firm faith on the total system in
Bangladesh that Bangladesh will be able to fight COVID-19.

Bangladeshi hospitals are not run under single umbrella like the European countries. It is
fragmented and government hospitals are not well equipped. Private hospitals are reachable
for the rich only. But most of them kept closed due to their lack of efficacy on COVID-19.
On this circumstances people have least faith that Bangladeshi hospitals can effectively fight
COVID-19. Hospitals were not given PPE within March. Frontline doctors were not well
trained, and the number of Ventilators allocated for the COVID-19 patients is only 29. As of
late March, the daily Test conducted by IEDCR was around 100 to 150 per day which was
increased significantly by April 4. But in a country of over 170 million population, the
number of daily tests were relatively much lower. In this study nearly 92 percent people
consider that the number of tests per day should be increased. This position corresponds to
the position of WHO (2020) which suggests only more test as the ultimate solution against
combatting COVID-19. Most of the media reports showed that suspected COVID-19 patients
were not admitted in any hospitals as they were not well equipped (The Dhaka Tribune,
2020). Testing kits were very limited as of March. More than 60 percent respondents have the
least belief on Bangladeshi hospitals that can fight COVID-19. Only 10 percent respondents
have a position who are sceptical standing on the middle position between yes and no. In
compare to this high dissatisfactory rate, only 0.5 percent people believe that Bangladeshi
hospitals can fight COVID-19.

5
Lockdown policy of Bangladesh

Bangladesh government imposed a complete lockdown since 27 th March 2020 asking people
to stay home. Social media response in locking down contributed in this decision. European
countries suffered due to belated lock down which caused thousands of deaths. Though
Bangladesh found the first death due to COVID-19 in early March, they did not go for
complete shutdown. Facebook’s impression has been reflected in this research where more
than 65 percent people think that Bangladesh should have gone to complete shut down since
early March. 34 percent respondents consider that the moment Bangladesh started lock down
was the right moment. Apart from the starting time, 65 percent respondents think that this
lock down should continue for 1 month whereas 25 percent think that it should be continued
till late May. Only 9 percent people think that this lock down situation should be till late June
2020. A prolonged lockdown will surely have detrimental effects on the economy of
Bangladesh. The low- and middle-income people will struggle more, and it will be quite
difficult to keep people home. The GDP of Bangladesh will be decreased which will result in
overall production sector in the country. In this circumstance, the government will decide the
timeframe of lockdown depending on various issues; the pic of the pandemic in Bangladesh;
mortality rate; economic impact and how people are responding.

Public perception of politicians’ remarks and dependency on the Prime Ministers

address

This research finds that public perception on the remarks of the politicians over COVID-19 is
not satisfactory. Nearly 80 percent respondents consider their reaction as least satisfactory.
These politicians meant to be in general; government, neutral and opposition. Only 3 percent
respondents believe that politicians' activities depicted responsible behaviour. Bangladeshi
ministers have been alleged with questionable remarks (The Prothom Alo, 2020). One of the
minsters has told that Bangladesh is far stronger than COVID-19 which is supported by less
than 1 percent respondents of this study. Another minister remarked that Bangladeshi
hospitals are completely ready for fighting COVID-19 which was supported by only 9
percent respondents. 99 percent and 91 percent disagreement respectively over the ministers'
remark illustrates that their remarks are not data driven and public perception is quite
negative towards their positions.

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson used to face media and explained his policy on
COVID 19 before he caught by this virus. Before 25 th March 2020 when the Bangladesh
Prime Minister addressed the nation for the first time, different ministers remarked in
different ways so that it was difficult to get a policy plan of the government. Therefore, when
respondents were asked a question whether HMP be the sole spokesman instead of other
ministers, a mixed reaction was found in this portion. 39 percent respondents consider that it
is not the sole job of the Prime Minister. So, other ministers should also make policy
briefings. On the other hand, more than 38 percent respondents think that only the Prime
Minister should face the media. 22 percent respondents were in sceptical position and they

6
opine that if the Prime Minister face the media alone, this ‘might’ help everyone to
understand the policy of the government.

Could Bangladesh be on a leverage position?

Bangladesh as of early April struggled most regarding the absence of Personal Protective
Equipment (PPE) which is the most essential thing for the frontline doctors and nurses.
Though Bangladesh has imported PPEs from other countries and received donations from
China in late March, still the PPE is not sufficient, and it is already under observation how
PPEs or masks will be disposed. PPE has a high demand in the global market and Bangladesh
has already received formal requests from USA for importing medical equipment (The Daily
Star, 2020). Bangladesh is hit by COVID 19 in comparatively later than the Western
countries. As one of the biggest RMG giant, Bangladesh had the opportunity of producing
PPEs and could take authentication from WHO. On the other side, Bangladesh is one of the
largest exporters of medicine as well. So, Bangladesh could export medical equipment in
other countries and could earn a huge revenue. This position has been reflected on the
responses from the respondents. In compare to 51.6 percent who consider Bangladesh has
missed a chance in exporting medical equipment, 21.3 percent consider that Bangladesh is
not in a losing position. A big percentage of people more than 27 percent of the respondents
are not sure to what extent Bangladesh could be benefitted from this export. However, this
study finds that people have a belief that if Bangladesh would utilise her preparatory time by
making medical equipment, she could be on a leverage position.

Satisfaction over government measures

This situation is unprecedented, and Bangladesh has never faced this kind of situation. But as
an experienced country who fought natural calamities in different times, is expected to act
fast and in a comprehensive way. Though there was a lack of coordination among the
ministries, hospitals and executive authorities in dealing COVID-19; a significant
improvement was visible by 4th of April in compare to late the March. But still there are many
sites specially in health sector, institutional quarantine; ventilators, isolation centres, testing
widely etc. To be improved. Apart from this, coordination of giving aid to the
underprivileged should have been well disciplined and monitored by the Government. Nearly
58 percent respondents are not satisfied with the measures already have taken whereas about
40 percent respondents are satisfied over the steps taken by the government. Moreover, it is
very unfortunate that the government must fight a wide range of rumours on social media.
Nonetheless, Rumours are rarely spread by the electronic and print media; instead they are
working as frontline soldiers. So, the government should have concentrated more on social
media rumours rather than forming observatory cell on the mainstream media.

Universities, research and funding

7
Truly Bangladesh Universities do not have enough funding for research, and it is reflected on
the amount of scientific papers published in International open access scientific journals
(Scopus, 2020). With a limited opportunity and lack of modern laboratories Bangladeshi
scientists struggle to work intensively on issues like COVID-19. While the western world is
investing billions of dollars for COVID-19 research, Bangladeshi scientises are relying on
their limited resources and working on this virus from theoretical positions. More than 97
percent respondents have urged for a significant rise of the research budget for the researches
of universities specially. Only after that significant research outcome can contribute to the
world.

Conclusion and recommendations:

Even though the government is taking measures against the COVID-19, the public perception
is quite negative according to the data. Why is this variation? Is it largely because of the
misinformation or rumours or it is because of the delayed response by the government? It is
difficult to draw a conclusion abruptly. Because the survey response was relatively low. But
several assumptions can be made which can lead future researches in the concerned field.
Data show that the government's response started late. When the world started experiencing
its deadliest experience especially in Italy, people desired faster responses. The Prime
Minister’s early address to the nation could ease the situation and people would get a
comprehensive policy guideline. On the other side, a large gap of coordination was visible
among the ministries. This study gives importance on the picture that has changed after the
speech of our Honourable Prime Minister on the ground. For instances, more hospitals were
incorporated, testing kits were imported, PPE were delivered to the doctors and so on. Even a
bailout plan of the government was unknown to the mass till her first address. So, this study
thinks that in this pandemic situation the policy of the government should be disbursed to the
nation by the Honourable Prime Minister through which people can understand more and
participate on the field of war against this virus alongside the government. The concerned
ministry, Ministry of Health, failed significantly in communicating the people; they could not
understand the public demand and they failed to tell the people what measures have been
taken by the government. Ministry of information is also responsible partly for not sharing
the measures taken by the government. This increased a vacuum and facilitated the rumour
spreaders on social media. This research therefore suggests few policy prescriptions for
fighting COVID-19.

Firstly, the government's policy should be communicated by the honourable Prime Minister
directly to the media.

Secondly, the government urgently should form a scientific advisory board headed by a
scientist and including specially scientists, academics, doctors and researchers. This body will
be accountable only to the Prime Minister. The government’s national committee will take
decision based on the recommendations of the said group.

Thirdly, more tests need to be confirmed every day. Through rigorous testing countrywide,
we will know who to treat and who to keep isolated and quarantined. Lack of testing will lead
us to a catastrophic situation. In addition, the special hospitals made ready for the patients

8
should be equipped with at least 1000 Ventilators. If it’s difficult to purchase, the government
can bring ventilator on ‘loan’.

Fourthly, Bangladesh has declared a bailout plan of more than 72 thousand crore taka but
these packages did not tell us how the low-income people or poor people and the farmers will
be facilitated. This research suggests a separate bailout policy for the farmers should be
implemented as no interest policy.

Fifthly, the hospitals should work in collaboration. It has been reported that many private
hospitals have limited services for general people which has increased the health concern
other than COVID 19. Each big hospital should be kept open with proper protection for the
frontline doctors and nurses, and the treatment must be continued. In addition, more hospitals
should have well-equipped zone with ventilators for proper isolation in the critical period.
Apart from specialised hospitals in Dhaka, at least each division should have one specialised
hospital.

Sixthly, the low-income people should be taken care of with utmost importance. The people
who do not have fixed income will be vulnerable in lockdown situation. So, both public and
private sectors should come forward in assisting them with aid.

Seventhly, the Garment factories should be kept closed at least for more than a month. The
present lock down should continue till the end of April. This will facilitate social distancing
and will reduce the chances of getting infected. Local and community transmission will be
reduced through this measure.

Finally, the government should repeatedly urge for cooperation from all sects of people in
fighting COVID-19. It is not the sole job of the government to fight this war. Social
awareness campaign should be continued through the print, electronic and social media. A
key tool to combat Covid-19 i.e. social distancing should be made more popular among
people.

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