Local young theatre artists performed a street play in Khurushkul area in Cox's Bazar on Sunday to raise awareness among the host community to prevent coronavirus transmission under a project of Caritas Bangladesh's Emergency Response Program (ERP).
 
Caritas organized this exceptional event under the program "Assistance Program for Local Day Laborer/Extremely Poor and Unemployed Families Affected by Covid-19 Pandemic". The project is funded by CAFOD UK.

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The play is organised to motivate the rural population to maintain health guidelines and get vaccinated against coronavirus, said ERP’s Head of Operations Mr. Inmanuel Chayan Biswas.
 
ERP Project Director Mr. Marcel Ratan Guda, said "Street plays are very effective in raising public awareness on any issue. Hopefully the people will be aware and Bangladesh will also be able to deal with the new variant Omicron which is already detected in Bangladesh.”
 
The street play was performed by artists Md Absar, Md Arman, Shiul Sharma Nishan, Akash Das, Nayan Dey, Hamira, Sumi, Jui, Arian Babu, Sagor, Sujoy, Mehedy Hasan among others. Local people, students enjoyed the street play and promised to maintain health guidelines and come under vaccination against coronavirus.
 
Since the massive influx of Rohingyas from Myanmar into Cox's Bazar district in 2017, Caritas Bangladesh has undertaken various activities to support the Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMNs) as well as the local host community. One of the activities is to help the local day laborers, the extremely poor and the unemployed families affected by the pandemic.
 
Financial assistance is being provided to 1056 extremely poor and unemployed families of Cox's Bazar district. In addition, hygiene and dignity kits are being distributed to 1322 Rohingya women. To combat coronavirus, 20,000 masks are also being distributed to adults and children in Cox's Bazar Municipality and Sadar Upazila.
 
Bangladesh on Saturday confirmed two positive cases of the Omicron variant for the first time which has raised a concern to tackle the situation in the country.