UK thanks Saudi Arabia for thousands of medical gowns in fight against COVID-19

LONDON: The UK is very grateful to Saudi Arabia for donating “hundreds of thousands of medical gowns” to the country’s National Health Service (NHS), Britain’s foreign secretary said on Sunday.

The UK and the Kingdom “will continue to work together to tackle this global pandemic,” Dominic Raab said in a tweet.

The British government has been criticized for the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) that is available to front line workers in the NHS and elsewhere such as in care homes.

Many family members of health workers who have died have complained that health professionals are not being given adequate PPE as they deal with coronavirus cases.

As of May 22, British newspaper The Guardian recorded 200 deaths of NHS and private health care staff that have been reported in the news. The true figure is likely to be higher because not all deaths are reported in the media.

A British Muslim doctor who died of COVID-19 wrote an open letter to prime minister Boris Johnson appealing for more PPE for frontline workers two weeks before his death.

The 18-year-old son of Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, Intisar Chowdhury, confronted Health Secretary Matt Hancock about ignoring his father’s calls for more PPE.

“Do you regret not taking my dad’s concerns, my 11-year-old sister’s concerns … seriously enough for my dad that we’ve all lost?” he asked Hancock on a local radio show.

Hancock replied by apologizing for Chowdhury’s death and hailed the teenager for his bravery.

“Intisar, I’m really sorry about your dad’s death and I have seen the comments you’ve made and what you’ve said in public and I think it’s very brave of you,” he said.

Britain has the third highest number of coronavirus deaths after the United States and Brazil, something critics of the government say reflects its response to the crisis.

The United Kingdom’s death toll from confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose by 36 to 41,698 as of 1600 GMT on June 13, according to government data released on Sunday.