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Bangladesh sending medical aid to China


Published : 16 Feb 2020 08:30 PM | Updated : 06 Sep 2020 12:06 AM

Bangladesh is sending different types of accessories to aid the healthcare professionals in China grappling to fight off new coronavirus.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Sunday announced that they would soon send hand gloves, hand sanitizer, masks, gowns and caps to China.
A senior official of the foreign ministry told Bangladesh Post that they are planning to send half a million of sets of such protective gears.

The foreign minister also handed over a letter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, written to President Xi Jinping, to the Chinese Ambassador Li Jiming at an event at the foreign ministry. The letter was, earlier, sent to Beijing.

The Chinese ambassador also announced that they would provide 500 kits to test coronavirus to Bangladesh in a gesture that “China never forgets to lend helping hand’ in any situation.

The number of new cases from China’s coronavirus epidemic dropped for a third consecutive day on Sunday, as the World Health Organisation chief warned it was “impossible” to predict how the outbreak would develop.

Global concern remains high about the spread of the virus, which first emerged in China’s central Hubei province in December, with the first death outside Asia reported in France this weekend.

The death toll jumped to 1,665 in mainland China on Sunday after 142 more people died from the virus. More than 68,000 people have now been infected —but the number of new cases of the COVID-19 strain continued to decline.

In hardest-hit Hubei, the number of new cases slowed for a third consecutive day and at 139, the number of deaths was level with Saturday’s toll.

The number of new cases in other parts of the country has dropped for twelve straight days.

The foreign minister praised China’s efforts to contain the virus and said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her deep condolences for the loss of lives due to the outbreak of ‘Coronavirus’ in Wuhan city and other places in China.

He said in the message written to President Xi Jinping, she conveyed her sincere sympathy for the families of the victims.

The prime minister expressed her firm conviction that the government of China will be able to face and stop the aggravation of the situation with utmost capacity and control.

She mentioned that ‘establishing a taskforce and building emergency hospitals to address the crisis is timely and praiseworthy’.

The Prime Minister also assured that the people and the government of Bangladesh are with the friendly people and the government of China to address the crisis. She mentioned the readiness of the government of Bangladesh to extend any help to mitigate the plight of the victims.

The Chinese ambassador expressed his ‘sincere and heartfelt gratitude’ to the prime minister. “It is the great consolation to receive the heart touching letter,” he said after receiving the letter.

“The donation and the action go beyond the action itself,” he said, adding that Bangladesh has been acting extraordinary and has been cooperating very closely with the Chinese side.

He said the embassy here in Dhaka has been receiving letters of sympathy from various quarters of Bangladesh including two letters sent personally from the foreign minister. “We are receiving donations from many organisations”.