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The first coronavirus case was reported in one of the camps hosting more than a million Rohingya refugees in southern Bangladesh.
A person from the Rohingya community and a local person from the Cox’s Bazar district tested positive and were isolated, according to Bangladesh Refugee Commissioner Mahbub Alam Talukder.
A UN spokeswoman said the teams were working to track, quarantine and evaluate anyone with whom patients have had contact.
Refugees in the Balukhali camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Stock Photo
The camps are more densely populated than the world’s most populous cities, and people live in plastic shacks next to each other.
Each cabin accommodates up to 12 people, despite measuring just 10 square meters.
Aid workers had previously warned that there could be a possible humanitarian disaster if COVID-19 reached the camps.
Manish Agrawal, country director for Bangladesh at the International Rescue Committee, said: “Here, people live between 40,000 and 70,000 people per square kilometer.
“That is at least 1.6 times the population density on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where the disease spread four times faster than in Wuhan at the peak of the outbreak.”
People in the camps do not have enough soap and water to protect themselves and the health facilities do not have enough staff or space.
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“Without efforts to increase access to medical care, improve sanitation, isolate suspected cases and decongest the camp, the disease will devastate refugees and the local population here, where there is a much lower standard of living and a higher rate highest of existing diseases that make refugees more susceptible to the virus, “Agrawal said.
Bangladesh has reported 18,863 coronavirus cases and 283 deaths, with infections that have accelerated in recent days.
Dr. Shamim Jahan, health director for Save the Children in Bangladesh, warned that “thousands” could die from COVID-19 now that the virus had entered the fields.
“There are only an estimated 2,000 ventilators in the whole of Bangladesh, serving a population of 160 million people. In Rohingya refugee camps, home to almost one million people, there are no intensive care beds at the moment,” said.
“This pandemic could delay Bangladesh for decades.”
More than 730,000 Rohingya arrived in Bangladesh after fleeing Myanmar in 2017, when the Myanmar army launched an offensive.
Security forces have been accused of mass rape, murder and burning of thousands of homes, and Myanmar faces genocide charges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
The army denies the genocide and says it was fighting in response to the rebel attacks.
