Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called up Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh to discuss the COVID-19 situation in the two countries.

Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told the official news agency that both the Prime Ministers agreed to take further the SAARC initiative to fight the COVID 19 pandemic subsequent to the video conference of Prime Minster Narendra Modi with SAARC nations on March 15. Sheikh Hasina thanked India for sending medicines and other medical equipment to Bangladesh to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said that both the Prime Ministers extended Bangla Nabo Barsho and Ramazan greetings during their 12 minute long telephonic talk.

In a tweet, Prime Minister Modi said that he discussed COVID-19 situation and ways India and Bangladesh can collaborate in the fight against it. He said that relationship with Bangladesh will continue to remain India’s highest priority.

In the meanwhile, Bangladesh on Wednesday reported the highest single day increase in Corona infections in the country. The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in its virtual briefing said that 641 fresh Corona positive cases were reported from the country in the last 24 hours taking the total number of infected people to 7103. It also informed that 8 people died due to Corona taking the death toll to 163 since the first Corona positive case was detected in Bangladesh on March 8. During the same period 11 COVID-19 patients recovered bringing the number of recovered persons to 150.

Additional Director General of DGHS Dr. Nasima Sultana informed that 60 districts out of 64 in Bangladesh have reported Corona cases. Out of 163 deaths, Dhaka city accounted for 85 making it the major hotspot of the COVID-19 infection. Dr. Nasima said that Bangladesh is witnessing rapid increase in Corona cases since March 24. She said that the country has sufficient quantity of testing kits for Corona in stock while government continues to import testing kits on a regular basis.

Continuing with the suspension of transport services, the national carrier Biman Bangladesh on Wednesday extended the suspension of all domestic and international flights from the country till May 15.