OUTBREAK FEARS AFTER DEATH AT REFUGEE CAMP

BANGLADESH Fears are growing about the spread of the coronavirus in the world’s largest refugee camps in Bangladesh after it was announced Tuesday that a 71-year-old man had become the first Rohingya to die from the disease.

Aid workers in the Kutupalong camps that house almost 860,000 people, mostly Rohingya, near the town of Cox’s Bazar have warned that the virus could sweep through the squalid accommodation.

The man died on Sunday at the camp’s isolation centre, but Bimal Chakma, of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission, said it was only Tuesday that it was confirmed he had tested positive for COVID-19.

At least 29 Rohingya have tested positive for the virus since the first case was detected in the camps on May 14.

“It is a ticking time bomb,” said Alejandro Agustin Cuyar, a director with Relief International. “Once the virus takes hold, it will be incredibly challenging to flatten the curve.”