RAJSHAHI, April 29, 2020 (BSS) – Around 50 lakh people of more than 11.04 lakh daily wage earning and hand-to-mouth households have, so far, received relief materials to tackle the present adverse impact of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in Rajshahi division.
Humayun Kabir Khandaker, commissioner of Rajshahi division, said the beneficiary families were given 10 kilograms of rice each as a part of the government’s instant humanitarian support to mitigate the livelihood related hardship in all eight districts in the division till yesterday.
He said a total of 11,466.68 tonnes of food items have, so far, been distributed among the families badly affected by the pandemic.
Another Taka 6.13 crore in cash was also distributed among 5,95,482 families in the division. Besides, more 1,766.47 tonnes of rice and over Taka 1.23 crore in cash are in stock at present for distribution.
Meanwhile, 13,269.24 tonnes of rice has been sold among the families in need at cost of Taka 10 per kilogram while 4,682.15 tonnes remained in stock at present for distribution.
Another, 7,73,026 poor and extreme poor households were given 24,000 tonnes of rice under the government’s “Food Friendly Programme” last month. Equal numbers of families are also getting the same quantity of rice in the current month.
Besides, 4,500 tonnes of rice is being distributed among the families in need under the Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) Programme. Each of 1.5 lakh beneficiary families is getting 30 kilograms of rice every month free of cost.
Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton said 21,000 jobless and other low-income families were brought under the emergency food support in Rajshahi City Corporation areas to minimize their hardship caused by the coronavirus as a gift of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently.
Each of the beneficiary families was given 10 kilograms of rice at their respective doorstep as the government had allocated 210 tonnes of rice.
The city corporation also dispensed another 123 tonnes of rice among 12,300 hand-to-mouth families in the city from the government allocation earlier.
Apart from this, RCC has provided foodstuffs to around 45,000 daily families in need in two phases to cope with the present troubled situation.
On the other hand, 37,060 personal protective equipments (PPE) were distributed among the frontline healthcare workforces to handle the COVID-19 pandemic through protecting them from the virus infection in the division. There are 26,031 more PPEs in stock for distribution.
A total of 808 doctors and 1,512 nurses are working in 172 public and private hospitals in the division. Around 1,888 beds, out of total 4,149, were already prepared for treatment of the possible COVID-19 infected patients.
There are arrangements of 220 beds in isolation units here and 17 ambulances for the purpose of emergency transporting and treatment of the infected patients.
Meanwhile, the civil administration, armed forces and law-enforcement agencies remained active to deal with the adverse situation through enforcing the restrictive measures.