“Bangladesh is dealing with Covid-19 properly with limited resources. What we need is awareness. Media is the most important tool for creating this awareness. From the beginning, the media of the country has been playing a responsible role,” he said. 

Munshi made the remarks at an event arranged by The Republic of China (Taiwan) External Trade Development Center in collaboration with Walton to handover medical equipment to fight Covid-19 at the Secretariat. 

Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque and Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar also spoke on the occasion.

Maleque said Bangladesh is successfully tackling Covid-19 since the identification of the first patients on March 8. 

“Timely scanning has been arranged in the country's air, naval and land ports. At that time (initial outbreak), we didn’t have enough medical supplies, so we started dealing with this epidemic in a planned way,” he said. 

The health minister said the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals is declining and currently 60-70 percent seats are vacant. He said the government is mulling reducing the number of specialised hospitals and opening them for general treatment. 

Also read: Community radios broadcasting progs on COVID-19 prevention

Jabbar said his ministry has stood by the Ministry of Health to the best of its ability during the coronavirus outbreak. 

“We’re delivering health products free of cost to 64 districts and also ensuring uninterrupted service in the call centres and telemedicine system,” he added.

The Republic of China (Taiwan) External Trade Development Center handed over 1,00,000 surgical masks, 1,600 N-95 masks, 20,000 cloth masks, 10,000 face shields, 500 PPEs, 200 goggles and two sets of ventilators to the Health ministry.

Also read: Working to bring Covid-19 vaccine to Bangladesh: Health Minister