Amid reports of panic buying of essential commodities by consumers in Bangladesh, government of Bangladesh has assured that it has adequate stock of these commodities to meet any demand.

Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi urged people not to buy essential items beyond their regular requirement as the stock, supply and prices of essential commodities in the market are normal. He cautioned people against rumours in this regard.

Dispelling fears of the shortage of Personal Protective Equipments (PPE), Director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora said on Wednesday that the county has no shortage of PPEs at this point of time but it needs more.

Abul Kalam Azad, Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), told media on Wednesday that 10,000 new testing kits are under shipment. He said government is working to procure 1 lakh more kits from abroad.

Meanwhile, a local Bangladeshi hospital Gonoshasthaya Kendra has applied to the government for approval of a testing kit for Corona virus costing about 250 Taka. The hospital claims the kit can give result in 15 minutes using the ‘Rapid Dot-blot’ technique which looks for antibodies created in response to the Corona virus. Director of (IEDCR) Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora said that the kit can be considered for use after proper testing.

The embassy of China in Bangladesh announced on its Facebook page that China would give Bangladesh 10,000 test kits, 15,000 surgical N95 respirators, 10,000 pieces of medical protective clothing and 1,000 infrared thermometers.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his video conferencing with SAARC leaders on Sunday had offered dollar 10 million to create an emergency fund to fight Corona virus in the South Asian region.