Japan International Cooperation System (JICS) on Sunday donated a substantial delivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Bangladesh for COVID-19 pandemic response.

This donation came from the JICS on behalf of the government of Japan and the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF).

These essential medical supplies for medical professionals and frontline workers - 340,000 personal protective equipment items - will support the Government’s efforts to control the recent upsurge of COVID-19 in the country, said the Japanese Embassy in Dhaka.

“The donation of these essential medical supplies comes at the right moment, when we are scaling up efforts to control the increase of confirmed COVID-19 infections across the country. We are very grateful to the Government of Japan and ASEF for their ongoing support to our pandemic response, which will contribute to better equip our health workers”, says Professor Dr. Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, Director General at Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The delivery includes 30,000 isolation gowns, 200,000 surgical masks, 8,000 particulate respirator masks, 2,500 safety googles and 100,000 gloves worth over USD 53,000 which becomes crucial to protect frontline healthcare workers and battle the upward trend in the number of COVID-19 cases reported in the last few weeks.

“Japan is delighted to cooperate with Bangladesh amid this global crisis and we believe this cooperation will even foster the partnership between Bangladesh and Japan. We hope the medical supplies will contribute to the COVID-19 response of Bangladesh, and hope we will overcome this difficulty hand in hand,” says Naoki Ito, Ambassador of Japan to Bangladesh.

“Collective efforts are key to fighting this global pandemic. The financial support of key partners as the Government of Japan and ASEF enable us to continue protecting our frontline workers and thus ensuring the best clinical care management of COVID-19 patients in Bangladesh,” said Dr Bardan Jung Rana, WHO Representative to Bangladesh.