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Amid rising COVID-19 cases, Bangladesh imposes lockdown in Cox’s Bazar Municipality which houses Rohingya refugee camps

Bangladsh Live News | @banglalivenews | 06 Jun 2020, 05:32 am

#RohingyaRefugeeCamps, #Rohingya, #Bangladesh, #COVID19, #Lockdown

Dhaka: With rising number of COVID-19 positive cases, Bangladesh authority has put Cox’s Bazar Municipality on lockdown and even declared some areas of the district as red zones, media reports said.

After the government ended the nationwide shutdown, the district, which is housing one of the biggest refugee camps for Rohingyas, has been witnessing a spike in COVID-19 positive cases.

Md Kamal Hossain, the district administrator, told bdnews24 the local committee on coronavirus prevention made the decision to lock the municipality down in an emergency meeting on Friday. It will be effective from Saturday through to Jun 20.

The district has recorded 877 COVID-19 patients so far with Cox’s Bazar Sadar Upazila having the highest number of infections, 364, reported the news portal.

So far, 35 refugees have tested positive for the virus in Rohingya refugee camps.

Bangladesh recorded 35 new COVID-19 deaths, taking the toll to 846.

The caseload surged to 63,026 on the back of 2,635 new COVID-19 cases confirmed in the 24 hours to 8 am Saturday, according to the health directorate as reported by bdnews24.