‘Coronavirus is guiding us towards some sort of innovation’

Local companies have started producing sophisticated medical devices and much-needed personal protective equipment (PPE), a development that comes as a sigh of relief amid the mounting fear of coronavirus epidemic that has so far claimed 34 lives in Bangladesh.

Some garment factory owners have already made thousands of pieces of PPE suits, masks, gloves, shoe covers and caps, while tech companies are manufacturing other components of the equipment like face shields and safety goggles.

The tech firms are also making ventilators that offer the best chance of survival by taking over the body's breathing process when coronavirus infection causes the lungs to fail.

This is a massive success and a giant leap by the companies of Bangladesh, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT, told The Daily Star.

"Coronavirus is wreaking havoc on our lives and at the same time guiding us towards some sort of innovation," he said, adding that if the local companies can carry on the innovation, it will take the country to a new height.

Palak particularly mentioned the name of Walton that is making ventilators using the patent and design of Medtronic, an Ireland-based medical device company run by an iconic Bangladeshi expatriate Omar Ishrak.

The government is monitoring the process of manufacturing ventilators by Walton, according to the state minister.

"We will get a prototype within this week," Palak said, adding that the company will make about 50 ventilators of global standards in the first phase for testing.

On March 31, the ICT division of the government received the patent, design and source code of ventilators from Medtronic, following which both Walton and Medtronic's research and development team are working closely.

According to the Directorate General of Health Services, Bangladesh currently has just 1,250 ventilators -- 500 in public hospitals and 750 in the private ones -- while it might require thousands more to face the challenges dramatically brought on by coronavirus.

Walton is also making some other medical devices like face shields and safety goggles for the safeguard of physicians and medical assistants, said Golam Murshed, executive director of the company.

The company already made 1,000 pieces of these devices and handed those to the Directorate General of Health Services on Saturday for free.

"This is the first initiative of manufacturing face shields and safety goggles in the country," Murshed added.

Different garment factories were already making protective suits, masks, gloves, shoe covers and caps for PPEs but making goggles and face shields is a whole another ball game, Walton officials said.

"With the goggles and face shields, PPE manufacturing has now gotten a complete shape in Bangladesh," Murshed said, adding that the country can consider exporting PPEs after this.

Officials of another local electronics manufacturer, Minister Hi-Tech Park, said they have designed a ventilator and sent samples for pre-testing to two private medical colleges.

"After receiving the medical colleges' reports, we will make the necessary changes based on their suggestions and submit those to the authorities concerned for approval," said MA Razzak Khan, founder of Minister Hi-Tech Park.

Khan is hopeful that the design would be approved within this week and from next week they would be able to go for production.

Minister can make about 100 ventilators a day. "But it all depends on the supply of component parts," he added.

Meanwhile, the Military Institute of Science and Technology, an engineering university run by the Bangladesh Armed Forces, has also designed a ventilator and will soon send it for the clinical trial, said Syed Mahfuzur Rahman, head of biomedical engineering department of the institute.

In another development, Snowtex Group, a garment exporter, is leading PPE manufacturing and is in the process of producing 50,000 units, according to Sarkar Mohammad Khaled, its managing director.