US Agency for International Development (USAID) has delivered to Bangladesh its most recent shipment of emergency medical supplies to save lives, stop the spread of COVID-19, and meet the urgent health needs of the people.
This latest delivery brings the total of US pandemic assistance to more than $84 million.
US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R. Miller handed over the supplies to Mr. Toufiq Islam Shatil, Director General, Americas, Ministry of Foreign Affairs while Kabir Ahmed, Joint Secretary, Economic Relations Division (ERD), Ministry of Finance; Professor Dr. Mohammad Robed Amin, Line Director, Non-Communicable Disease Control (NCDC); Dr. Md. Zahidul Islam, Deputy Director, Hospitals from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS); and Dr. Moinul Ahsan, Civil Surgeon, Dhaka present in the handing over ceremony on Tuesday.
The supplies include 100 state-of-the-art U.S. manufactured ventilators; gas analyzers to allow Bangladesh to produce its own ventilators; tens of thousands of pieces of locally-produced personal protective equipment (PPE; KN95 surgical masks, face shields, HAZMAT suits, full body gowns, medical-grade hand sanitizer, surgical gloves, medical goggles).
Also this month, USAID sent two more flights, one of which was also supported by the U.S. Department of Defense, with additional personal protective equipment to Dhaka to support Bangladesh’s response efforts.
On June 3, the White House announced its plan to share vaccines directly with Bangladesh as part of a framework to provide 80 million U.S. vaccine doses globally by the end of the month. This includes 7 million doses destined for Asia.
