2,000 more physicians to get appointment, says minister

The government will take steps to appoint additional 2,000 physicians to contain the situation if the number of Covid-19 patients continues to soar in the country, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on Monday.

“The government will take steps to see the situation. It will appoint additional 2000 physicians if the coronavirus situation remains changed. Besides, the process to appoint medical technologists is going on,” he said at a press briefing at the VIP lounge of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport when he went there to see off the Chinese expert team.

Talking about the increasing number of coronavirus cases, the Minister said “If people do not become aware of the highly contagious virus, then all the hospitals of the country will be full of Covid-19 patients. People should be more aware of the virus.”

He also emphasised more budget allocation in the health sector to fight coronavirus.

Besides, the Minister also said that China is working to develop coronavirus vaccine and the Chinese government has said Bangladesh will get priority in terms of cooperation and support if they can successfully develop a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Talking about the visit of the Chinese delegation, the Minister said, “The Chinese delegation expressed their satisfaction over the work of Bangladesh in tackling coronavirus crisis. They also suggested to the government that there are some areas where improvement is possible. We’ll work on those identified areas in future.”

Referring to the testing kits, Zahid Maleque said the government has taken steps to meet the demand and so there is no reason to worry about kits.

The 10-member team of Chinese experts, who has the firsthand experience of containing the virus and treating patients with remarkable success, came to Bangladesh with a bunch of medical equipment.

Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming, who was present at the press briefing, also assured of providing the vaccine to Bangladesh on priority basis whet developed.

Besides, Prof Abul Kalam Azad, director-general of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) also spoke at the press briefing. Representatives of the Chinese delegation and high official concerned of the Health sector were present there.

(Source: UNB)