Bangladesh offers jab to Rohingya refugees amid surge in infections in camps

A Rohingya refugee gets vaccinated against Covid-19 in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh (Shafiqur Rahman/AP)

Bangladesh’s government and aid agencies started vaccinating Rohingya refugees as a virus surge raises health risks in the sprawling, cramped camps where more than one million people who fled Myanmar are sheltering.

The highly transmissible Delta variant is driving an infection surge across Bangladesh, with around 20,000 infections and 200 deaths recorded so far in Cox’s Bazar district, the southern region bordering Myanmar where the refugee camps are located.