Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury:
What the government has to do to make the lockdown 100pc effective
1. From seven days before the start of the lockdown, every poor family should be given one month’s ration free of cost. The army, students, boys’ scouts and political activists will reach the aid everyone’s house by seeing their national identity cards. The rationing system should continue at least for three months.
For a month’s ration, 15 kg rice, 5 kg flour, 5 kg potatoes, 2 kg pulses, 1 liter of oil, 500 grams of pepper, onion, garlic and a packet of salt will cost a maximum of only fifteen hundred taka. In other words, four crore poor families will cost 6000 crore taka as per month rationing. If Quick Rental is stopped and the price of per piece Bidi is Tk. 5 and per piece cigarette is Tk. 20 and imposing of 200% duty on liquor, betel leaf, gul, jorda, and other energy drinks will bring several times more revenue for the government than expense of rationing the four crore poor.
2. No one other than doctors, health workers, law enforcement and media personnel can use private vehicles during the lockdown. Everyone has to use public transport, it is essential to start public transport every 15 minutes by going around the city and suburbs. Special public transport will be introduced to bring patients to all government and private hospital clinics. During the lockdown, solve their problems of poor people, not be fined.
Behaving them rudely would be considered an unforgivable crime. All restaurants and Chinese food shops must be closed during the lockdown. However, food shops on sidewalks should be kept open for poor workers. In these shops, khichuri is available to eat with full satisfacion only for 20-25 taka.
3. Sooner or later, all the people will have to be vaccinated on emergency basis by buying ten crore doses of Sputnik-V and Synovac. Vaccines reduce mortality and disease severity. As a result, medical expenses are reduced.
4. All must together turn the goodwill of the Prime Minister into action. The people have the right to know the reason for your reluctance to buy the cheapest Sputnik-V corona vaccine of Russia for 8 (eight) dollars per dose. Please disclose accurate information. Who or what are misleading you? If 20 million doses of Sputnik-V are bought from Russia for 6 dollars, Bangladesh will save 340 crore taka as compared to the vaccine bought from China. On the other hand, if the government buys 20 million doses of vaccines from European and American companies, the government will have to spend an additional 1880 million dollar or 15 thousand 980 crore taka for 20 million doses.
5. It is essential to introduce trains, launches and inter-district buses. This will save the travel cost of poor people. However, all passengers have to show the corona test report. Positive people should be discouraged from traveling.
6. In order to reduce the mortality rate in Corona, a well-equipped ICU unit with 5-10 beds should be introduced in every district hospital to ensure round-the-clock oxygen supply and for this, at least 10 doctors and health workers should undergo three weeks of practical training at high quality ICUs in Dhaka. At the same time, an oxygen production and supply plant will have to be set up at a cost of Tk 4 crore. However, if the machine is brought from Germany instead of China, the cost will increase by another two crore taka. It will take only three months. The government will spend only Tk 364 crore to ensure round-the-clock oxygen supply to 64 district hospitals.
7. The Bangladesh government has a surplus of 46 billion. With an investment of only 0.5 billion, it is possible to produce and market the vaccine in Bangladesh within the next six months under the permanent licensing system under the TRIPS agreement. This requires political will. Technology and royalty will cost no more than 2 dollar per dose to produce and market the corona vaccine.
Source of information:
1. Department of Health, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s ‘Akul Abedan’ Daily Bangladesh Pratidin, 9 July 2021 (25 Ashar, 1426 Bangla) Dhaka.
2. ‘Akul Abedan’ of inconsistent health, Dainik Prothom Alo, 10 July 2021 (25 Ashar, 1428 Bangla) Dhaka.
3. Tender of the Russian company informed to the Prime Minister.
(Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury is founder and trustee, Gonoshasthaya Kendra).
—Concluded.
