Garment suppliers in Bangladesh are waiting in distress to hear whether the authorities will keep factories open, as the country enters an intense nationwide lockdown starting Thursday.
Thousands of people are stranded in Bangladesh's capital city of Dhaka after health officials suspended nearly all public transport before Thursday's sweeping weeklong lockdown starts.
The government has also extended the ongoing closure of schools for another month in the face of the current health crisis in the country.
Officials blame the recent spike of the highly transmissible Delta variant first identified in neighboring India as the reason for the lockdown.
Apparel retailers including Levin Strauss and H&M are at risk of facing increased supply chain disruptions, as regions in Southern Asia are closing down their borders for strict lockdowns as Covid-19 infections rise, CNBC said.
The garment industry, which employs around 4.5 million workers and makes up 80% of the country's exports, was initially informed it could continue operating during the lockdown.
Representatives from Levi's, H&M, and PVH did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment.
Factories in Bangladesh have been open throughout the pandemic, apart from a five-week period in April when the manufacturing sector was told to prepare for massive closures, reports say.
Anil Srivastava, managing director at KL Design Group, is worried about the worsening situation.
"If we shut down, it will mean we cannot send shipments or receive payments," Srivastava said. KL Design supplies retailers including Peacocks and Primark.
The lockdown announcement triggered an exodus of migrant workers from Dhaka to home villages Sunday, with thousands cramming into ferries to cross a big river, Al Jazeera said.
More than 450 people with Covid-19 were admitted Tuesday to Bangladesh' government-run hospital in Rajshahi district's main city.
Bangladesh currently has a total number of 904,436 virus cases with 14,388 deaths.
Cabinet secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said military personnel would be deployed starting Thursday to help carry out the lockdown.
