“Tk 200, per piece PPE only Tk 200!”
Twenty-one-year-old Hamza was shouting to draw the attention of people near Hazaribagh Park, so he could sell personal protective equipment (PPE) to them around 1:30pm on Monday.
He was unfolding one PPE suit after another on a van to display, just before four to five customers swarmed around him.
Some were testing the PPE suits for sturdiness to have an idea of its quality, while others were holding them out to measure for height.
This is how the sale of PPE, which is supposed to be intact to protect one from being infected by Covid-19, was going on in Dhaka streets.
He said he knew that the virus may spread via the PPE in this way, but his hands are ties as people want to judge the goods first with their hands.
He sells four to five PPE suits daily on an average, alongside selling masks and hand gloves.
Like Hamza, many are selling PPE suits, masks, and hand-gloves on the streets. These items are mostly not up to global standards and are made in Old Dhaka and Kamrangir Char area.
There is a possibility that the PPE sold on the streets are previously used items, as a mobile court recently busted an illicit business that did exactly that.
Sarowar Alam, an executive magistrate of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), said some unscrupulous people are active in collecting used PPE and masks from different city hospitals and selling them after washing and ironing them in Kamrangir Char and Keranignaj area.
A mobile court on April 25 conducted a drive at the Bhatara area of Dhaka and seized a huge cache of used PPE and masks. The mobile court then handed one Monir Hossen with two years of imprisonment for the crime.
“Our drives will continue,” the magistrate said.
Many vendors, who are now jobless due to the ongoing countrywide shutdown, are engaging in the sale of PPE to make a living.
Public health experts say the use of these PPE suits and items, which have already been exposed to the public, can be fatal for health and a source of infection.
Although correct PPE gear includes medical masks, gloves, goggles or face-shield and full-body suits, general people refer to the suits alone as PPE.
Ayesha Akhter, an assistant director of the Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS) said that generally people do not need to wear PPE except to handle Covid-19 patients as per World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.
Besides, people should not buy PPE from open markets where the items are being touched by others.
“If anyone holds these items with their hands without proper protection, there is no use of those. Rather the items can be a source of the infection if any Covid-19 positive patient has touched them,” she said.
Yesterday, this correspondent saw PPE sales on the streets in Lalbagh, Azimpur, Hazaribagh and Kamrangir Cahr area. Our staff photographers said it is a common scenario in many parts in the city including in Gulistan, Jatrabari, Mohammadpur, Mogbazar, Mugda and Mirpur.
People usually buy PPE from the streets and use them while coming out of their house to go grocery shopping, believing that they are safe.
Many children were also seen selling these items on the streets.
Once a street juice seller, Sadikul became jobless after the shutdown began. He now sells PPE and masks on the city streets, mainly in Jigatola and nearby areas.
“Law enforcers said I cannot sell juice on the street. Initially I tried to continue selling while avoiding the cops. But people did not want to drink the juice. Now I sell these items after collecting them from Kamrangir Char area,” Sadikul said while talking to The Daily Star.
