The Chinese government has presented some 500 coronavirus test kits to Bangladesh with a view to facilitate the potential detection of the virus infection. And the government of Bangladesh has gifted China standard contact precautions likes mask and gloves to help prevent the virus infection that claimed 1,665 lives so far in the country till February 16.
The information came in a joint press conference, held at the foreign ministry on Sunday. Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming spoke at the press conference. The Chinese Ambassador in Dhaka said, “The Chinese government has gifted Bangladesh 500 sets of ‘most advanced kits’ to detect coronavirus. These will help identify the viral infection. The kits are expected to arrive in Dhaka within next two days.”
Li Jiming said more such kits will be provided if any case is confirmed in Bangladesh. According to the Chinese embassy sources, “these are real-time fluorescent RT-PCR kits for detecting the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) and are the first such donation to any country from China.”
Foreign Minister Momen told reporters that China has been very helpful to Bangladesh throughout the process and recalled Chinese government’s support in bringing back 312 Bangladesh nationals from Wuhan city, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. He said Dhaka is in in constant touch with Beijing and referred to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s recent message to the Chinese President Xi Jinping.