Bangladesh provides medical logistics to China to fight coronavirus

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen on Tuesday handed over some medical logistics to Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming as a goodwill gesture from Bangladesh to China, reports news agency UNB.

The logistics include one million hand gloves, 500,000 facemasks, 150,000 caps, 100,000 hand sanitizers, 50,000 shoe-covers and 8,000 gowns.

Health minister Zahid Maleque and foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen were, among others, present at the function held at state guesthouse Padma in the capital in the afternoon.

In a letter recently written to Chinese president Xi Jinping, prime minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her firm conviction that the government of China will be able to face and stop aggravation of the situation with utmost capacity and control.

She assured the China president that the people and government of Bangladesh are with the friendly people and the government of China to address the crisis.

Meanwhile, the first batch of the ‘most advanced kits’ to detect coronavirus or COVID-19, donated by China, was supposed to arrive in Bangladesh on Wednesday evening.

The kits, originally scheduled to arrive by a flight of China Airlines around 3:30pm today, will now arrive on Wednesday evening due to flight change, Yan Hualong, deputy chief of mission and minister (counsellor) of Chinese embassy, told UNB.

China is providing 500 sets of what it calls, the ‘most advanced kits’, to Bangladesh to identify coronavirus as a goodwill gesture and strong faith that Bangladesh has in China in winning the battle against COVID-19.

“Even at its most difficult times, China never forgets to lend a helping hand,” said the Chinese ambassador.

He said the embassy just ordered 500 test kits from Beijing Genomics Institute to help enhance Bangladesh’s capacity to detect coronavirus. The kits will be handed over to Bangladesh on Tuesday.

“These are real-time fluorescent RT-PCR kits for detecting the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) and are the first such donation to any country from China,” said Yan Hualong.

He said more such kits will be provided if any case is confirmed in Bangladesh.

Foreign minister Momen said China has been very helpful to Bangladesh throughout the process and recalled Chinese government’s support in bringing back 312 Bangladesh nationals from Wuhan, the epicentre of coronavirus outbreak.