Bangladesh starts vaccinating thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees on Tuesday in the world’s largest refugee settlement amid a surge in COVID-19 infections in the country, officials said.
Aid workers have long warned of a potential humanitarian disaster if there is a significant outbreak in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, the border district where over a million Rohingya who fled a brutal military crackdowns in neighbouring Myanmar have found sanctuary, Reuters reported.
Around 48,000 Rohingya, aged 55 and above, will be inoculated between Tuesday and Thursday with the help of the UN agencies, Mahbubur Rahman, the chief health official in Cox’s Bazar district, said.
“This is just the beginning. All adult Rohingya people will be vaccinated in phases,” Rahman told Reuters by telephone from one of vaccine centres in the camps.
