Bangladesh to buy 30 oxygen generators for COVID hospitals

The government has decided to buy 30 oxygen generators for hospitals through direct procurement system on an emergency basis amid the worsening coronavirus outbreak.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 4 August 2021, 04:00 PM
Updated : 4 August 2021, 04:57 PM

The cabinet committee on economic affairs cleared the proposal in principle on Wednesday.

The relevant ministry will decide the price and the hospitals where the oxygen generators will go to, said Additional Secretary Shamsul Arefin.

The oxygen generators will be bought under COVID Response Emergency Assistance, a programme financed by the Asian Development Bank.         

The demand of medical oxygen has skyrocketed in Bangladesh due to a surge in deadly COVID-19 cases.

After seeing the devastation caused by the Delta variant of the coronavirus in India, experts advised the Bangladesh authorities to take steps to keep the medical oxygen supply normal to tackle any situation over the outbreak of the respiratory disease.

Hospitals in Bangladesh have now become full to the brim with the highly infectious variant dominating the cases.

The government is planning to rent hotels to treat patients with milder symptoms. Some doctors, nurses and limited oxygen supply will be arranged at the hotels, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on Tuesday.

The cabinet committee also cleared a proposal to buy 50,000 tonnes of non-Basmoti rice from Bagadia Brothers Ltd of India for 2021-22 fiscal year at around Tk 33 per kg.

Other proposals were passed to construct a steel silo in Narayanganj, multi-storey quarters for government employees at Paikpara in Dhaka’s Mirpur, and buy fertiliser from several companies.