COVID-19: First Rohingya refugee dies in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh

An elderly Rohingya man has died in Bangladesh, at one of the largest refugee camps in the world, an official confirmed on Tuesday.

Mohammad Shamsu Douza, a top official at the office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) in Cox's Bazar, on the country’s southeastern coast, confirmed to Anadolu Agency that the man passed away as of Sunday.

He said the Rohingya man, 71, had been undergoing treatment for coronavirus symptoms at an isolation center for COVID-19 treatment.

Healthcare workers sent samples from the deceased to the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research lab in Cox’s Bazar for testing and got confirmation that he had contracted the novel coronavirus, Douza added.

The body was buried at a graveyard near the refugee camps maintaining guidelines of WHO, he said.

There are currently 29 Rohingya refugees in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar who have tested positive for COVID-19, and they are being treated at an isolation center, he said.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, fled neighboring Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017, pushing the number of the persecuted people in Bangladesh above 1.2 million.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh registered 37 new deaths from the coronavirus across the country, bringing the toll to 709.

The total number of cases from the virus reached 52,445, as 2,911 more people tested positive over the past 24 hours, said Nasima Sultana, a director at the Directorate General of Health Services.

Sultana said some 523 patients recovered over the past 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 11,120.