An entire world is now busy demanding personal protective equipment (PPE), including N95 masks and surgical masks as also thermometers and testing kits, as Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc in most countries around the globe.
As of 3:30pm Thursday, 2.65 million people had been infected globally with Covid-19, with 185,058 deaths and 727,717 recoveries being recorded.
In Bangladesh alone, Covid-19 infected 4,186 people, including 127 deaths as of Thursday.
While frontline healthcare workers in Bangladesh continued to complain about low quality masks delivered, instead of N-95, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said it was unable to acquire N95 masks as the US, which produces the masks, had stopped their export.
Health ministry sources also said despite repeated efforts, it was becoming a tough task to manage N95 and other PPE and testing kits because of a global shortage of the items.
But is it so difficult to bring the products that have become essential now?
To find out the answer, Dhaka Tribune spoke to Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) Mayor Mohammad Jahangir Alam, who has already procured PPE, N-95 masks, surgical mask, thermometers, and testing kits from China through using his own resources.
Speaking to this correspondent on Wednesday, Jahangir explained the collection process he maintains.
“I have already brought about 28,000 N-65 masks, 1.8 million surgical masks, 40,000 fourth grade PPE for doctors and around 80,000 testing kits from China. In addition, a consignment of 20,000 N-95 masks are under shipment,” he said.
The GCC mayor said these materials were available in China and the government could collect them from Beijing if it wanted.
“I can assure you that I just need aircraft facilities to bring these items from China without purchasing them. There are plenty of items stocked in China,” the GCC Mayor said.
Responding to a query on the quality of the products imported, the mayor noted that no medicine had so far been invented to battle against Covid-19. He then posed the counter-question: “Then who will certify which items are useful and which are not?”
He went on, “I am not alone in collecting these items from China. The air force in Bangladesh collected some items from China, and the health ministry too received some testing kits from Alibaba Foundation, which are also from China.”
Following requests from people, the mayor is now distributing the items to various hospitals in the country.
“I have already supplied N-95 masks to some big hospitals,” he said, naming Kurmitola General Hospital, Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and Dhaka Medical College Hospital – the hospitals treating Covid-19 patients.
Some private hospitals had also collected the equipment, according to the GCC mayor.
“There is no business here. I am distributing the items free of cost,” he said.
According to the GCC mayor, he does not know whether the initiative is legal or illegal. “All I know is that I am doing something as a human being.”
