Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Malequr has acknowledged that scarcity of manpower remains a major challenge to ensure progress in the country’s health sector.

"There are approximately 70,000 beds in the country's hospitals and we need trained workforce to efficiently manage the hospital beds," Maleque said this while talking to reporters at his secretariat office in Dhaka on Monday.

“Universal health coverage is being hampered due to the absence of skilled manpower,” he said expressing his concern over the increasing trend of non-communicable diseases in the country.

Despite the shortage of skilled manpower, Bangladesh has achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first country in the world to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis known as kala-azar or black fever.

The government is working relentlessly to reach the healthcare facilities to the doorsteps of people across the country and it has successfully met the objective. As a result, there has been a reduction in infant and maternal mortality rates, and the average life expectancy of the population has shown improvement.

He also praised Saima Wazed as she has been elected as Regional Director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) for the South-East Asia Region.