DHAKA, May 1 (NNN-BSS) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $100 million loan to support Bangladesh in its efforts to address the immediate public health requirements of combating the novel coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic.
“ADB stands with Bangladesh in this difficult time when the COVID-19
pandemic challenges the country’s recent successes in its socioeconomic
development,” said ADB Vice-President Shixin Chen.
“This project will help strengthen Bangladesh’s response to the COVID-19
outbreak by providing urgently needed health equipment, medical supplies,
diagnostic systems, and upgrading of the capacity of the health workforce,”
added the ADB official.
An ADB press release said the COVID-19 Response Emergency Assistance
Project will support the immediate procurement of equipment and supplies for testing; upgrade of medical infrastructure; and the development of system and community capacities for surveillance, prevention, and response to the pandemic in Bangladesh.
The project will equip17 medical college hospitals with isolation and
critical care units. Capacity and quality of at least 19 laboratories will be
upgraded with COVID-19 microbiological diagnostic facilities.
At least 3,500 health sector workers, about 50 percent of whom are women,
will be trained in modern skills and knowledge, and the recruitment of more health professionals and technical staff will be supported, according to the release.
ADB has a strong track record of responding rapidly to provide targeted
support to Bangladesh in times of emergencies.
As an immediate response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ADB has released a
$350,000 emergency grant for the procurement of medical supplies and
equipment, and $1.3 million from an existing project to provide one-time cash support to 22,619 trainees to enable them to continue their ongoing skills training program.
Additional grant assistance is also being explored to support the purchase
of urgently needed medical supplies.
On April 13, ADB tripled the size of its initial response to COVID-19 to
$20 billion and approved measures to streamline its operations for quicker
and more flexible delivery of assistance to help its developing member
countries counter the severe macroeconomic and health impacts caused by the pandemic.
ADB stands ready to provide further financial assistance and policy
advice, the release said.
Bangladesh Thursday reported five more deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and recorded 564 fresh positive cases overnight.
The tally of infections has soared to 7,667 in the same period after another 564 people tested positive for COVID-19 from 4965 samples.
Ten more COVID-19 patients were cured in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 160.
Bangladesh confirmed the first coronavirus death on March 18, ten days after the detection of the first COVID-19 cases. — NNN-BSS
