The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has taken up the responsibility of producing 6,000 masks for frontline workers engaged in combating the coronavirus pandemic.
Covid-19 poses a major threat to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees and local community members in Cox’s Bazar. The global shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) will aggravate the situation further.
To combat the crisis, IOM has initiated a project in Cox’s Bazar to produce 6,000 washable cloth masks for frontline Cyclone Preparedness volunteers and Fire Service and Civil Defence personnel who have been working with UN Migration to raise awareness about the disease and communicate ways to avoid infection.
The masks will also be given to Village Development Police in Cox’s Bazar Sadar, Ramu, Moheshkhali, Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas.
The initiative, launched recently by IOM and its NGO partners, Prottyashi and Nongor, have set up operations at Ukhiya and Teknaf, respectively. The mask production has been approved by the Directorate General of Health Services and Cox’s Bazar Civil Surgeon.
The masks will be distributed in coordination with upazilla administrators.
IOM has provided 14 sewing machines to the Nongor hub at Shamlapur, Teknaf while Prottyashi has own set up at Ukhiya. About 35 local people, including 25 women, are now making masks at the two hubs.
“The cloth masks, by minimizing person-to-person exposure, also support the efforts of the Government and need to be combined with other measures such as regular hand washing and maintaining social distancing,” said Patrick Charignon, IOM’s head of Transition and Recovery in Cox’s Bazar.
The masks will be distributed in coordination with upazila administrators.
Cox’s Bazar Deputy Commissioner Md Kamal Hossain welcomed the effort and has asked IOM to coordinate with the appropriate upazila administration offices and keep his staff up to date.
IOM, with other UN agencies and NGOs, is working with the Government to raise awareness and prepare the response to potential Covid-19 cases across Cox’s Bazar.
It is engaging with the district commissioner’s office and the civil surgeon to ensure that the right messages are being shared with both Bangladeshi and Rohingya communities.
In addition to hygiene promotion, soap distribution and the installation of hand-washing stations will also be key in preventing people from becoming infected.
IOM is also working to ensure that the health facilities that it supports in Cox’s Bazar are equipped to cope with an influx of patients.
It is increasing the number of isolation beds in its two Primary Healthcare Centres to 44, procuring PPE for health workers, stockpiling medicine and training health workers.
