15,000 Rohingya under quarantine as coronavirus cases rise

Sub-title: 

Three sections of camps in Bangladesh blocked off by authorities after confirmed infections among refugees hit 29.

Description: 

"At least 15,000 Rohingya refugees are under quarantine in Bangladesh's vast camps, as the number of confirmed coronavirus infections there rose to 29. Health experts have long warned that the virus could race through the cramped settlements, housing almost a million Rohingya who fled violence in Myanmar, and officials had restricted movement in the area in April. More: First coronavirus case found in Bangladesh Rohingya refugee camps Rohingya refugees sketch their stories through 'grassroot comics' Coronavirus shutdown threatens Chicago's Rohingya cultural centre Despite this, the first cases in the camps were detected in mid-May. "None of the infections are critical. Most hardly show any symptoms. Still, we have brought them in isolation centres and quarantined their families," Toha Bhuiyan, a senior health official in the surrounding Cox's Bazar area told AFP news agency on Monday. He said narrow roads to three camp districts - where the majority of the infections were detected - have been blocked off by authorities. The 15,000 Rohingya inside these so-called blocks faced further restrictions on their movement, he said. This comes as charity workers expressed fears over being infected in the camps as they worked without adequate protection. Two of the areas under isolation are in Kutupalong camp, home to roughly 600,000 Rohingya. "We are trying to scale up testing as fast as possible to make sure that we can trace out all the infected people and their contacts," Bhuiyan said..."

Source/publisher: 

"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)

Date of Publication: 

2020-05-27

Date of entry: 

2020-05-27

Grouping: 

  • Individual Documents

Category: 

Countries: 

Myanmar, Bangladesh

Administrative areas of Burma/Myanmar: 

Rakhine State

Language: 

English

Resource Type: 

text and video

Text quality: 

    • Good