Bangladesh restarts 500 garment plants supplying to global brands, India debates easing of curbs

More than 500 garment factories in Bangladesh that supply to global brands reopened on Monday after a month-long shutdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Clothing manufacturers in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong have been permitted to resume work, with workers wearing masks and maintaining physical distancing. Some of the world’s biggest clothing firms source their supplies from Bangladesh.

Industry groups for the sector, which boasts some 4,000 factories employing 4.1 million workers, had warned the shutdown could cause the country to lose $6 billion in export revenue this financial year. Bangladesh’s competitors – Vietnam, China and Cambodia – have already resumed operations. Bangladesh has reported more than 5,000 cases of the coronavirus and 145 deaths.

In India, where a strict shutdown for its 1.3 billion people is due to end on May 3, Prime Minister Narendra Modi began talks with the chief ministers of the 28 states to decide on what restrictions should be kept in place. India has 27,891 confirmed infections of the new coronavirus, and 872 people have died. Some 300 of India’s 730 districts have reported no cases of the coronavirus.

Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister of the western state of Rajasthan, said any extension of the severe lockdown could lead to people starving. “I can’t say how many people will die of corona, but if the situation continues, people will die of hunger,” Reuters quoted him as saying.