Dhaka: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved an emergency grant of $300,000 to aid Bangladeshs fight against the coronavirus pandemic, a media report said on Saturday.

The grant will support procurement of health safety materials, including personal protective gears, N95 masks, safety goggles, aprons, thermometers, and biohazard bags, the bdnews24 report quoted the ADB as saying in a statement.

The grant assistance is sourced from the Asian Development Bank Regional Technical Assistance entitled "Regional Support to Address the Outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Potential Outbreaks of Other Communicable Diseases".

"ADB is fully committed to supporting Bangladesh in the fight to control COVID-19, and this is only the first of the planned support that ADB is preparing to help the Government deal with this difficult situation," bdnews24 quoted ADB Country Director Manmohan Parkash as saying in the statement.

"This assistance will invigorate Bangladesh's ability to strengthen prevention, improve health professionals' protection from the disease, test people to detect infection, manage severe cases, and reduce the risk of the deadly virus' mass transmission."

According to the country's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Bangladesh currently stands at 48, with five deaths.