“Gloves worth 28 million soums are being purchased for metro and bus passengers in Tashkent” – Transport Department

Since October 19, it has become mandatory for public transport users in the city of Tashkent to wear not only a mask, but also gloves. According to the head of the Transport Department of the city of Tashkent Anvar Jurayev, one pair of gloves is purchased for 56 soums. It is estimated that 13-14 million pairs of gloves will be needed per month.

“One manufacturer cannot supply that amount. We have found two organizations. One of them supplies 200 thousand pairs of gloves a day, the second – 130-150 thousand gloves. We are now studying the market, the number of manufacturers there, and then we will arrange purchases,” Jurayev says.

According to him, rumors in social networks, which say that a new order is introduced for someone to make money, are completely unfounded, and “wearing gloves is being introduced only in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus.”

“Yesterday we openly announced that one pair of gloves costs 56 soums. Now consider: the healthcare system spends between 30 and 60 million to treat one patient. Public transport serves 350-400 thousand passengers a day. If we do not use gloves, then the number of patients will increase significantly, and the budget will suffer a significant damage. If we buy gloves and reduce the risk of contracting the virus among passengers, this will be a great help for the state and the population,” the head of the capital’s Transport Department said.

As Anvar Jurayev reported, an average of 28 million soums are spent per day to provide metro and bus passengers in Tashkent with gloves.

“This is for 1 million gloves. The manufacturer counts them piece by piece, and we, of course, distribute them in pairs,” he explained.

Reportedly, the costs of public transport companies to purchase gloves will be reimbursed at the expense of the Anti-Crisis Fund at the end of each month.

“There will be no problems with this. We have established the procedure for reimbursement of expenses and approximate prices in agreement with the government, with the Ministry of Finance,” the head of the Transport Department of Tashkent said in an interview with Kun.uz.

Gloves are purchased from two factories. The name of the second enterprise was not disclosed.

Anvar Jurayev said in this interview that two organizations supplying gloves were found, but he does not know their exact names, and will provide information about this later.

Earlier, on October 19, in an interview with Kun.uz correspondent, the spokesperson for the Transport Ministry Navruz Ashurmatov also promised to inform the editorial office about the enterprises from which gloves are purchased.

“I have no information with which company the contract was concluded. But if necessary, we can provide additional information,” he said then.

Now the Ministry of Transport informed Kun.uz about only one supplier of gloves, Poliplast Dizayn LLC. But with which carriers this company entered into a contract, the cost of the contract and other information, as well as data on other suppliers, were not provided.

“The promotion of wearing gloves on public transport is illogical”

The chairman of the Yuksalish nationwide movement Bobur Bekmurodov called this initiative of the Transport Ministry illogical, and said that this procedure should be canceled. On his Telegram channel, Bekmurodov drew attention to “two main doubts” arising from this decision.

“Firstly, there is not a single legal act or decision of the Special Commission on wearing gloves in public transport. Is the Ministry of Transport authorized to make such a decision? If such an act exists, then it must be published.

Secondly, the World Health Organization has recognized that wearing gloves is ineffective in preventing the coronavirus infection.

Gloves are distributed free of charge, but the cost of them will ultimately be borne by the taxpayers.

In this regard, the Ministry of Transport should abolish this procedure, and, instead, after consulting with citizens, offer other protective equipment (such as installing dispensers for hand disinfection),” the chairman of the Yuksalish nationwide movement wrote.

It should be recalled that earlier the deputy of Oliy Majlis Rasul Kusherbayev also expressed doubts about the legitimacy of this decision of the Transport Ministry. In his opinion, wearing gloves in public transport should not be mandatory, but recommendatory.

Russia’s chief infectious disease specialist, Vladimir Chulanov, said in an interview on October 21 that wearing gloves is ineffective as a protection against coronavirus. Two deputy chiefs of the sanitary and epidemiological wellbeing service under the Health Ministry of Uzbekistan, Botir Kurbonov and Nurmat Otabekov, said that wearing gloves reduces the risk of contracting the COVID-19 infection.