(15 May 2020) The first coronavirus case has been confirmed in the crowded camps for Rohingya refugees in southern Bangladesh, where more than one million refugees are sheltered.
The person from the Rohingya community and a local person who lives in the Cox's Bazar district who also tested positive have been isolated, the country's refugee commissioner confirmed on Thursday.
Teams have been activated for treatment of the patients as well as tracing people they may have encountered and quarantining and testing of those contacts, according to a spokesperson for the United Nations refugee agency.
Nationwide, Bangladesh has confirmed 18,863 cases, including 283 fatalities.
But the toll is thought to be higher since adequate testing facilities are a challenge in the South Asian nation of 160 million people.
Aid workers have been warning of the potential for a serious outbreak if the virus spread into the densely crowded camps.
With about 40,000 people per square kilometer (103,600 per square mile) living in plastic shacks side by side, the 34 camps have more than 40 times Bangladesh's average population density.
Each shack is barely 10 square meters (107 square feet) and many are overcrowded with up to 12 residents.
The UN and the government have said about 1,200 beds for isolating and treating COVID-19 patients are being readied just outside the camps at Ukhiya and Teknaf in Cox's Bazar.
A plan was also underway for an additional 1,700 beds in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration, UNICEF and Save the Children International.
Most of the Rohingya have fled Myanmar since August 2017, when Myanmar’s military launched counterinsurgency operations in response to rebel attacks.
Security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and burning thousands of homes.
Myanmar authorities have long considered the Muslim Rohingya to be migrants from Bangladesh, even though their families have lived in the Buddhist-majority country for centuries.
Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless. They are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights including education.
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