Covid-19

In Honduras, where there have been 1,270 confirmed cases of and 93 deaths due to COVID-19, the government has declared a state of emergency and most economic activity has ground to a halt. Instead of serving exclusively as a means of containing the pandemic, however, the lockdown has begun being used to sinister and nefarious ends.

In early April, Development and Peace’s partner, Centro Labor, launched its United Against the Coronavirus solidarity campaign in the Pasco region of central Peru.

After dismissing COVID-19 as “a little flu” and sacking his dissenting health minister, President Jair Bolsonaro joined street demonstrations against lockdowns aimed at containing the pandemic. Meanwhile, more than 40,000 Brazilians have contracted the disease and over 2,500 have died from it, accounting for over half of South America’s COVID-19 death toll.

COVID-19, which has already infected 88 people and killed eight in Bangladesh, poses a serious risk to the country’s million or so Rohingya refugees and their host communities.
To prepare people for the pandemic, our partner, Caritas Bangladesh has distributed 114,080 leaflets and 400 posters containing government- and WHO-issued health and safety information to 225,000 people. It has also:

On March 16, 2020, Somalia’s health ministry identified the country’s first COVID-19 case in the capital, Mogadishu. International flights were soon suspended and, as was being done in several countries, Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire announced the closure of educational institutions and the cancellation of public events and gatherings.