UNHCR has welcomed the commencement of the vaccination of Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar in line with national authorities’ broader public health efforts. "We are grateful to the Government of Bangladesh for having included Rohingya refugees in the vaccination campaign," said Johannes Van Der Klaauw, UNHCR’s Representative in Bangladesh, on Wednesday. The UN refugee agency said equitable inclusion of Rohingyas in allocation of vaccines is critical to curbing the spread of the ongoing pandemic. "The Rohingya refugee and host community volunteers have an essential frontline role in containing the spread of COVID-19 in the camps. The first step in fully protecting communities; however, is through the rollout of vaccination," UNHCR’s Representative in Bangladesh emphasized. On Tuesday, over 4,000 Rohingyas received their first COVID-19 vaccine, as part of a national vaccination drive to curb the spread of the deadly virus. Read: Covid kills 237 more in Bangladesh as Delta strain takes hold Rohingyas eligible for vaccination in the first cohort include some 48,000 individuals over 55 years of age. The drive will continue until August 17. The vaccination drive for Rohingyas is being led by the Bangladesh authorities with technical support from the UN Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization and other humanitarian partners. The fight against the pandemic has been led by thousands of refugee and host community volunteers, who have worked since 2020 on informing refugees about health and hygiene, monitoring any signs of illness, and connecting the refugee community with critical health services. While the threat of COVID-19 remains critical, their efforts have helped to prevent and curb outbreaks and have saved lives, said the UN agency. The vaccinations follow the devastating monsoon rains that hit Cox’s Bazar District over the past weeks, causing flash floods and landslides which killed eight Rohingya refugees and 15 Bangladeshis in the host communities. Read: Vaccination drive in Bangladesh: Procurement of 60 mln Sinopharm doses gets nod Almost 25,000 refugees were displaced due to landslides, flooding, wind and storms. Thousands of facilities have been damaged including primary health clinics, distribution points and latrines. Access was hindered due to damage to roads, pathways and bridges. UNHCR’s Emergency Response Teams, and partners, refugee and host community volunteers were deployed to assess the damage, to provide support to families forced to relocate, to begin immediate repairs of shelters and other site improvements and to ensure access to essential services for all.  While the weather has improved over the last few days, the monsoon season will continue for another couple of months followed by the cyclone season.

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and the humanitarian community are waiting for the arrival of vaccine doses under the COVAX facility to begin the vaccination of Rohingyas in Bangladesh as it was originally scheduled to begin by the end of March. The government of Bangladesh, however, wants to ensure vaccination of both the Rohingyas and host community together depending on the availability of vaccine doses as it does not want to see any discrimination against anybody, officials said.     Bangladesh, meanwhile, saw a significant rise in the number of Covid-19 positive cases in Rohingya camps in April and May last. Also read: Strict lockdown imposed in Teknaf and five Rohingya camps Twenty people died of Covid infections in the camps, while 1,566 Covid-19 cases were confirmed as of June 20, according to the UNHCR.