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Dhaka, 30 June 2021: Japan International Cooperation System (JICS), on behalf of The Government of Japan and the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), has donated a substantial delivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) items to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Bangladesh for COVID-19 pandemic response.
This handover of essential medical supplies will support the Government’s efforts to control the recent upsurge of COVID-19 in the country.
Over the past weeks, a new spike in the number of confirmed cases has been registered in Bangladesh, leading to a nationwide strict lockdown from 28 June 2021. According to COVID-19 epidemiology, 36 746 cases have been reported during the last week, with a test positivity rate of 20.5%, in comparation to the 9 720 cases and a positivity rate of 8.9% registered four weeks ago.
As of 30 June 2021, the Government of Bangladesh has reported 904 436 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 14 388 associated deaths.
“The donation of these essential medical supplies comes at the right moment, when we are scaling up efforts to control the increase of confirmed COVID-19 infections across the country. We are very grateful to the Government of Japan and ASEF for their ongoing support to our pandemic response, which will contribute to better equip our health workers”, says Professor Dr. Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, Director General at Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
This timely delivery includes 30 000 isolation gowns, 200 000 surgical masks, 8000 particulate respirator masks, 2500 safety googles and 100 000 gloves worth over USD 53 000 which becomes crucial to protect frontline healthcare workers and battle the upward trend in the number of COVID-19 cases reported in the last few weeks.
“Japan is delighted to cooperate with Bangladesh amid this global crisis and we believe this cooperation will even foster the partnership between Bangladesh and Japan. We hope the medical supplies will contribute to the COVID-19 response of Bangladesh, and hope we will overcome this difficulty hand in hand”, says H.E. Mr Naoki ITO, Ambassador of Japan to Bangladesh.
“Collective efforts are key to fighting this global pandemic. The financial support of key partners as the Government of Japan and ASEF enable us to continue protecting our frontline workers and thus ensuring the best clinical care management of COVID-19 patients in Bangladesh”, states Dr Bardan Jung Rana, WHO Representative to Bangladesh.