To date, at least 29 Rohingyas have tested positive for the virus (Performance)
Dhaka:
A 71-year-old man has become the first Rohingya living in large refugee camps in Bangladesh to die from the coronavirus, an official said on Tuesday.
Health experts have long warned that the deadly virus could pass through the large, cramped network of bamboo huts sheltering nearly a million refugees who have fled neighboring Myanmar since a military crackdown in 2017.
Toha Bhuiyan, a senior health official in Cox’s Bazar district, said the man died on Sunday and confirmed the presence of a coronavirus, the cause occurring on Monday evening.
Mohammad Shafi, a teacher at the Rohingya school and a neighbor to the camps, said the man had long suffered from high blood pressure and kidney disease.
“No one realized that he had a coronavirus. The news came as a shock to us,” Shafi told AFP.
“In the past few weeks, many people in the camps have been suffering from fever, headaches and body aches. But most think they have gotten sick due to the weather change. They don’t bother to get sick test for the coronavirus. “
The death occurred in the Kutupalong shelter in south-eastern Bangladesh – the largest refugee camp in the world – which alone is home to around 600,000 people.
The man was among at least 29 Rohingyas who tested positive for virus in the camps.
Bhuiyan said the victim died in an isolation center run by the Doctors Without Borders medical association and was buried in the camp the same day.
He said authorities were trying to find people with whom the deceased had been in contact. So far, nine people have been isolated.
Local infections
More than 740,000 Rohingyas fled a brutal 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar at Cox’s Bazar, where around 200,000 refugees were already living.
In early April, authorities ordered the closure of the coronavirus in the neighborhood – which is home to 3.4 million people, including refugees – after a number of infections.
Bangladesh has seen a sharp increase in virus cases in recent weeks, with more than 60,000 infections and around 700 deaths in the country.
The first infection among the Rohingya, also in Kutupalong, was reported in mid-May. The 35-year-old man reportedly fled after being tested positive and was found by the police after a four-hour hunt in the camps.
He was reportedly infected in a hospital in a nearby town.
Authorities have intensified testing and blocked roads leading to several areas of the camps where most infections have been recorded.
Police used loud hailstones to induce residents to abide by the rules of social distancing.
Last week, approximately 15,000 refugees were placed under quarantine as the number of cases increased.
Bangladesh and United Nations authorities have prepared seven isolation centers capable of treating more than 700 patients inside the camps.
“Serious concerns “
Bhuiyan said local officials – in the absence of internet access – would speak to camp administrators to publicize the death.
But ensuring that the virus does not spread is a major challenge in the maze of narrow alleys, sometimes impregnated with wastewater, in large swarming camps.
“Some Rohingyas have told us of their serious concerns about the poorly maintained social isolation inside the camps,” said Saad Hammadi of Amnesty International.
“(This) is one of the (main) health and safety tips for this pandemic,” said Hammadi, adding that older Rohingyas were the biggest concern.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, “works around the clock” to ensure the availability of the tests, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
The group also ensured that there were adequate facilities to care for patients, as well as contact tracing and the isolation of those who might have been exposed.
No awareness
Aid workers say many refugees know very little about the virus.
They blame this in part on local authorities cutting off internet access in September to fight what they say are drug traffickers and other criminals.
“In the absence of a mobile Internet, many rumors are spreading and community members do not receive up-to-date information about COVID-19, as if it were something no one wanted to touch,” said the rights activist Rezaur Rahman Lenin, who worked in the camps. , explained to AFP.
Mohammad Farid, a leader of the Rohingya community in Kutupalong, told AFP: “We are very tense. Many people live here and almost no one maintains any regulations to avoid the disease.
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
