Covid-19: World “has to recover together” and help vulnerable states

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Credit: Fabeha Monir / Age International

A doctor tests the blood pressure of a man in the Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, one of the world’s largest refugee camps.

The impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the world’s most vulnerable populations, including refugee camps and fragile states, threatens not only those communities but the world’s ability to contain the virus, the head of the World Health Organization said last week. In a warning to richer nations racing to find and distribute a vaccine, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “For the world to recover faster, it has to recover together: the economies are intertwined. Part of the world or a few countries cannot be a safe haven and recover.”

Cox’s Bazar is one of the seven targets of the recently launched Disasters Emergency Committee’s coronavirus appeal. It aims to raise funds for the most vulnerable communities in the world fleeing from conflict and instability, to help them withstand the threat of covid-19.