The government provided an insignificant number of original N95 masks — a protective equipment of the gold standard for filtering out airborne particles of 0.3 microns by up to 95 per cent — to our doctors for fighting COVID-19. Rather, they have supplied imported masks claimed as “equivalent” to N95 respirators, mostly from China, which is allegedly substandard and ineffective. What’s true is that counterfeit and low-quality masks are entering Bangladesh creating potential health risks for its users, especially the healthcare professionals. Across the globe, N95 is counted as a key component of personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors treating Covid-19 patients in hospitals and collecting or testing samples. Our government has been importing respiratory masks equivalent to the N95 through listed vendors are mostly from China. Earlier this month, major US mask manufacturer 3M said the US government has asked it to stop exporting US-made N95 masks to Canada and Latin America.
Currently, 17 hospitals in Bangladesh are dedicated to Covid-19 treatment where around 300 to 400 masks are required every day for health professionals. In the medical stock, there have around 4470 N95, 6195 FFP2 and 60210 KN95 masks. The FFP2 masks are European and KN95 are Chinese standard for respirators. However, N95 are required for the health professional who provides treatment to COVID-19 affected patients. The skyrocketing demand across the world made it difficult for developing countries like Bangladesh to source face masks from China, which meets more than half of the global demand for face masks. Due to absence of proper protective equipment, at least 600 doctors and more 700 nurses have already been infected with the virus.
Definitely, there are alternative of N95 masks to equip our frontline soldiers. We don’t understand why the government has wasted more than three months time expressing happiness of having well preparations to fight COVID-19.
