Pandemic coronavirus and price hike in medical items -The Asian Age

By the time we all already know about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a new virus that had not been previously identified in humans. This 2019 novel coronavirus has spread to 114 more countries until now apart from China prompting the WHO to declare the disease as a global pandemic.

Confirmed novel coronavirus cases are closer to 130,000, while more than 4,700 deaths have been reported across the world as of 12 March 2020. Though recently this virus was found on the human body in China first now more than one-third of the Covid-19 cases are outside of China now.

Until March 08, 2020, there were no positive cases of COVID-19 in Bangladesh. People of Bangladesh were afraid that what will happen when this virus hits in Bangladesh. Even before any coronavirus case was identified in Bangladesh the prices of the masks, handwash, and disposable medical items went sky high due to the artificial market scarcity.

Turning public fears into reality, authorities in Bangladesh have confirmed the first three patients of Covid-19 on March 08, 2020. Since then all the medical items required for protecting oneself from coronavirus went market out. Because some dishonest businessmen were not selling those products in public.

The businessmen said that the shipment of the products is not coming from China and there is a huge demand for these products in the market, so we all are out. So, there was an upward trend of demand for the various disposable medical items and the decline in their shipment from China as an effect of lethal coronavirus outbreak.

After the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in Bangladesh the very next day the highest court of this country had to 'direct' the government to take necessary steps to stop price hike of masks, handwash, and sanitizers, or storing them to make extra profits later.

Along with the government, many organizations and individuals were urged not to panic over coronavirus as the government has claimed that necessary measures have been taken to prevent the virus from entering the country. However, people didn't believe that. Besides, there was some false news about the virus and how to protect yourself.

And the result was they were panicking and then some dishonest business started to take advantage of this 'panic' and started storing up the disposable medical items which are necessary to protect oneself from COVID-19. Not only in Bangladesh but also in neighboring countries the demand for this item has gone up. Since China is the main exporter of these products the shipments from China got affected and due to the closing down of factories there.

It is understandable that if there is a high demand for the product then the price for the product will rise. But this is medical accessories and the market for this product cannot be unregulated. After the direction of the High Court, the government has taken measures to regulate the market.

For controlling the price hike of the medical items, the government conducted different mobile courts in different parts of the country. Those courts have fined different shops for hiking masks, sanitizer prices. In addition, some of the pharmacies were selling expired medicines.

Now the thing is why this is that we do things at the eleventh hour? The coronavirus breakout took place in December 2019. By the time we already know a lot about this virus and how it would spread and will eventually come to Bangladesh. Then why we didn't take any precautions to provide medical items to the general people?

Did our government agencies know about the coronavirus? If they did then why they didn't take any strong measures to stop it from spreading? As far as we know from the media most of the screening devices were used for detecting the virus were broken or doesn't work properly in different land ports and international airports of Bangladesh.

Reports came in the mainstream media that many public hospitals don't have enough kit to examine the coronavirus. Once again, the High Court had to come forward to direct the government's Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to prevent a coronavirus outbreak. In addition, the government should provide adequate equipment to prevent the virus and test people for it at the ports in the country.

The government was taking actions to test people and trying to prevent the outbreak, but it was not enough, and this is why the High Court had to intervene. If it was enough preparation from the government side to spread awareness among people on the virus then people wouldn't go for panic buying.

If the government would have planned accordingly and wisely then the pharmacies and superstores wouldn't have faced the shortages of disposable medical items. Now the experts say that hoarding masks, handwash, and sanitizers as it could make an outbreak situation worse by depriving those who might need it.

World Health Organization describes the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic. Now we are hoping that it doesn't take the worst shape as it has taken in many countries. Many world leaders have predicted that the world's 60% of people will be affected by the COVID-19.

Bangladesh as a country recently graduating in the middle-income country club cannot afford to close down its industries for quarantine as many countries had to do. In addition, we need to depend on China for many different purposes including the completion of megaprojects. If we cannot control the spread of the virus in the country, then our current speed of development will be hampered, and our overall development will be affected by it as it has happened in most of the virus affected countries.

However, if we along with the government can act properly to resist the spread of the virus in the country then we can do it. Now China is closing down the hospitals as there are fewer and fewer new cases of COVID-19 are identified. If they can do that then why not us?

(The different sources of information are acknowledged with gratitude.)


The writer is Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, Comilla University, Bangladesh.
Email: [email protected]