PM Receives Tk165cr Donations for Relief Fund

More than 40 organisations, including 34 private banks, on Sunday donated Tk 165.6 crore and surgical masks to the Prime Minister's Relief and Welfare Fund to support the poor affected by the COVID-19 fallout.

The donations were received by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina via a video conference from her official residence, Ganobhaban, reports UNB. 

Representatives of the organisations handed over cheques of donations to PM's Principal Secretary Dr Ahmad Kaikaus at the Prime Minister’s Office.

Of them, the 34 banks, led by Bangladesh Association of Bank (BAB), provided a total Tk 164 crore as donation.

Other organisations that made donations are Food Ministry, Foreign Officers Spouse Association (FOSA), Rajshahi Medical University, Institute of Architects Bangladesh, Bangladesh Judicial Employees Association and Minister Group. Alongside the cash money, Minister Group provided 100,000 surgical masks.

The 34 banks are – AB Bank Ltd, Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd, Bank Asia Ltd, BRAC Bank Ltd, City Bank Ltd, Dhaka Bank Ltd, Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd, Eastern Bank Ltd, EXIM Bank, First Security Islami Bank Ltd, Islami Bank (Bd) Ltd, Jamuna Bank Ltd, Mercantile Bank Ltd, Midland Bank Ltd, Modhumoti Bank Ltd, Mutual Trust Bank Ltd, National Bank Ltd, NCC Bank Ltd, NRB Bank Ltd, NRB Commercial Bank Ltd, NRB Global Bank Ltd, One Bank Ltd, Padma Bank Ltd, Prime Bank Ltd, Pubali Bank Ltd, SBAC Bank Ltd, Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd, Social Islami Bank Ltd, Southeast Bank Ltd, Standard Bank Ltd, Trust Bank Ltd, Union Bank Ltd, United Commercial Bank Ltd and Uttara Bank Ltd.

Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18.

The health authorities confirmed the deaths of 32 patients and 1,567 new cases of coronavirus in the 24-hour period until Saturday morning.

With this, the country's caseload reached 347,372 with 4,913 fatalities.

A total of 2,051 patients recovered during this period.

So far, 254,386 patients have recovered, pushing the recovery rate to 73.23 percent.

Currently, there are 88,073 active cases in the country.