Coronavirus: ADB provides $300,000 grant for Bangladesh
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $300,000 emergency grant to help Bangladesh fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The grant was approved on Friday (March 27).
The grant will support procurement of health safety materials, including personal protective gears, N95 masks, safety googles, aprons, thermometers, and biohazard bags, according to a press release issued by ADB today (March 28).
The list has been prioritised by the Directorate General of Health Services of the health and family welfare ministry of Bangladesh.
The materials can help the federal government strengthen its efforts to contain spread of the virus.
The grant assistance is sourced from the Asian Development Bank Regional Technical Assistance entitled "Regional Support to Address the Outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Potential Outbreaks of Other Communicable Diseases".
"ADB is fully committed to supporting Bangladesh in the fight to regulate Covid-19, and this is merely the to begin the planned support that ADB is getting ready to help the government manage this difficult situation," said Country Director Manmohan Parkash.
This assistance will invigorate Bangladesh's ability to strengthen prevention, improve health professionals' protection from the disease, test people to discover infection, manage serious cases, and reduce the threat of the deadly virus' mass transmission, the statement read.
"We will work tirelessly to construct further assistance in the health and financial sectors," Parkash added.
When confronted with a risk of a Corona virus outbreak, Bangladesh government has taken various actions and adopted measures good World Health Organisation's recommendations.
In Bangladesh, 48 people have up to now been infected with coronavirus, five people died and 15 persons recovered in the condition.
The global death toll of coronavirus reached 27,371 till Saturday noon (Bangladesh Time). A total of 597,563 people have already been infected while 133,377 recovered worldwide in the deadly disease, worldometer reported.
