Hasina wishes Johnson quick recovery from COVID-19, says Bangladesh will work closely with UK

Sheikh Hasina has expressed her sadness over British Prime Minister Boris Johnson contracting the coronavirus.

In a letter to Johnson, the prime minister wished her British counterpart a speedy recovery and promised to work closely with the UK to fight the pandemic, her Assistant Press Secretary ABM Sarwar-e-Alam told reporters on Saturday.

“While we are all fighting our own battles and challenges against the spread and loss of lives from the pandemic coronavirus, I have been closely following all your timely and dynamic leadership initiatives including extreme lockdown, supporting laws and financial stimulus to protect the people of the United Kingdom from the devastation and death from the coronavirus,” Sarwar quoted Hasina from the letter.

The number of confirmed cases in the UK stood at 17,089 on Saturday morning.

The death toll rose by 260 in a day to 1,019, the seventh highest toll in the world behind Italy, Spain, China, Iran, France and the United States.

File Photo: Boris Johnson met Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka during his Bangladesh visit in February, 2018.

Bangladesh reported no new cases or deaths, with the number of known COVID-19 patients at 48 and death toll from the disease at five, but fears ran deep over the possibilities of a larger epidemic in the country, one of the densely populated ones.

Johnson confirmed on Friday that he had tested positive for the virus. UK’s Prince Charles and Health Secretary Matt Hancock have also contracted the virus while Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty has self-isolated with symptoms of the disease.

“Our government will always be prepared to work with UK government in the spirit of existing cooperation in mutual efforts to overcome this challenge, and with determination to succeed,” Hasina told Johnson in the letter.

Understanding the gravity of the pandemic, her government acted very seriously from the very outset of the crisis, Hasina said.

She said Bangladesh started screening travellers at the airport along with the arrangement of dedicated quarantine zones since January, and formed high-powered national committee task forces to tackle the different dimensions of the spread of the virus and its challenges.

The government “prepared designated hospitals, and equipped health professionals with necessary facilities”, according to the prime minister.

She also noted the government shut down all offices and educational institutions in the country, locked down infection-prone areas to prevent community transmission, advised the people to stay at home.

The government suspended all public gatherings, including those related to the celebrations of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary, and cancelled all state and private get-togethers.

“We are unceasingly conducting mass awareness both from the party and the government to protect our people from this lethal virus,” Hasina added.