UN: “Rohingya refugee camp has the highest risk of infection in the world”

Following the confirmation of the new coronavirus infection at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, the United Nations has determined that "the highest risk of infection in the world" need the expansion of the distribution of clean water and soap to prevent the deadly infection.

A new coronavirus infection was first confirmed in a refugee camp in neighbouring Bangladesh, where more than 800,000 Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar, live densely.

A Rohingya refugee walks through a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Image credit Mohammad Ponir Hossain, Reuters

A UN spokesman said on Wednesday that the local Bangladeshis, who are helping refugees, were also confirmed to have been infected, reporting that "860,000 Rohingya refugees and 400,000 Bangladeshi people live where the highest risk of infection in the world lays," he declared.

Nonetheless, 210 beds to isolate refugees suspected of being infected as masks, clean water, soap distribution, and food distribution stations are kept too close to each other. If no preventive measures for infection will be taken soon, the pandemic will hit harder.

Image credit Médecins Sans Frontières

"The situation gets even more complicated when the monsoon season comes in summer," said a spokesman. 4,000 families of refugees were forced to leave the camp in one day last year because of the monsoon floods. He also pointed out the possibility of making it difficult to hold down and called for support from the international community.