Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has praised the Health Ministry for its efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

She made the remarks while addressing a meeting of the Awami League's central working committee on Saturday, reports bdnews24.

"There has been a lot of talk about the role of the health ministry or the health directorate. But I have to admit that they've carried out whatever instructions I've given.

"I told them that this is an emergency and the work must come before everything else. We need to buy the necessary things and get them to the people. People have to be treated and we must be able to reach them. That is the most important thing now. That's how they have worked and because of that we have been able to keep the coronavirus situation under control," the premier was quoted as saying.

Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus case on March 8. Since then, the outbreak has intensified, prompting the government to enforce a 66-day countrywide lockdown from March 26 to slow the spread of the virus.

But the government gradually rolled back the lockdown curbs at the end of May, with the Prime Minister underlining the contributions of officials from different ministries to confronting the challenges at the time.

Highlighting the global economic slowdown due to the pandemic, Hasina said: "We have always tried to ensure that our economy doesn't come to a standstill. With that in mind, we have prepared our national budget for the coming year. We didn't reduce the budget, in fact, it's higher than last year's. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to draw up a budget of over Tk 5 trillion.

"Yet we did so because we said we would spend on a limited scale and only on what is needed. But we have kept the budget right so that our economy remains dynamic."

On Saturday, the country reported 1,508 new cases, taking the overall tally to 364,987, bdnews24 reported.

The death toll increased to 5,272 after 21 new fatalities were recorded, according to government figures.
(IANS)