When I first heard about the Covid-19 outbreak in China during the month of January, little did I anticipate that five months on, Bangladesh would be in a similar situation. As the novel coronavirus rapidly spread in many parts of the world over the following months, the full enormity of the situation finally sank in when the pandemic hit Bangladesh during March.
Though I have worked in the humanitarian sector for 25 years, I must admit that, despite many assignments under challenging conditions, I wasn’t prepared for such a crisis, the one that the Covid-19 has unfolded.
As cases continued to rise and the pandemic refused to show any signs of pausing, we realized that 2020 would not pan out as planned. We had to review all our plans and work on a contingency plan that was unthinkable a few months earlier, finally acknowledging that Bangladesh would not be spared by what was proving to be a challenge all across the world.
While the country was putting in place general holidays aimed at limiting community transmission, we decided to keep the ICRC delegation in Dhaka and its office in Cox’s Bazar up and running. With new working procedures and most staff working from home remotely, we had to continue to deliver critical protection and assistance services to people in the safest and most responsible ways, taking into account our duty of care to the staff and their families.
We rapidly identified the critical programs that had to continue, putting on standby less crucial ones, while integrating Covid-19 as an important new parameter into our operations, not only in Cox’s Bazar but at the national level as well.
Together with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) and other components of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, we decided to strengthen our cooperation and coordination to stand side by side with people in dire need.
We knew that beyond the public health crisis, Covid-19 was going to impact the economic security of millions of Bangladeshis. For the displaced people from Rakhine, this would add another layer of vulnerability to their already fraught situation.
We immediately scaled up our support to the BDRCS whose thousands of volunteers and staff across the country have continued to work on the front line of this crisis. A cash donation to the BDRCS in early April enabled them to kick-start their immediate response to the pandemic in Bangladesh.
As I pen this message, I am aware of the fast-escalating situation in Cox’s Bazar where displaced people continue to live in sprawling camps. Physical distancing is practically impossible there and the locals are increasingly being infected with this virus.
Hence, our support to the emergency department of Sadar Hospital, the district’s main health facility, has been consolidated. A new emergency department for coronavirus treatment is catering to the needs of swelling health emergencies. Over 600 families from Rakhine live precariously along the Konarpara No Man’s Land of Bangladesh-Myanmar border. Their temporary abode is crowded and access to basic services remains limited.
As the sole organization working there, we are maintaining the delivery of essential services, including preventive Covid-19 messages and practices, setting up public hand-washing stations, and adapting our distribution of food rations, fuel sticks, and hygiene material with advised physical distancing.
At the national level, prisons pose an extra challenge when it comes to preventing and containing infectious and contagious diseases. An outbreak of Covid-19 in a prison could be devastating for the entire population. We have been able to respond quickly in close partnership with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) and the Prison Directorate of Bangladesh. Improving the preparedness of 68 prisons across the country in the face of a possible outbreak, we have been distributing necessary material for infection prevention and control there.
As the pandemic continues unabated, millions of Bangladeshi people are facing acute food shortage due to lack of work. Thanks to our long-standing partnership with the BDRCS in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), we quickly carried out a needs assessment of the most vulnerable communities in remote areas and also in the urban centres.
As a result, 30,000 people from 6,000 families received cash assistance in three CHT districts just before the celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr. We are glad to have reached families whose members tested positive for Covid-19, households depending on daily wages, the ones with no access to income, women-headed households, and people with disabilities to help meet their basic food and other needs.
As the deaths related to Covid-19 keep soaring, hundreds of body bags and guidelines on how to handle these bodies have been distributed to several institutions and government ministries to help in dignified management of the dead.
After almost three months of operations under the Covid-19 crisis, I am now wondering when this emergency will end. Although less polluted, I miss the noisy, bustling, and colourful streets of Dhaka with their lively disorganized order.
Pierre Dorbes is Head of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Delegation in Dhaka.