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Rohingya camps in Bangladesh under lockdown over coronavirus

Bangladesh has enforced a complete lockdown on Cox’s Bazaar, a southern district home to over a million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.

District head Kamal Hossain announced there will be no entry or exit from the district.

There are no confirmed cases in the camps but the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said that an outbreak would hit the camps hard because there are very limited facilities for intensive care treatment.

Save the Children reported that Cox’s Bazaar does not have any ventilators to treat critically-ill patients.

Within the last five days, the number of cases in Bangladesh doubled to more than 200 people with 20 deaths.

Bangladesh locks down southern district home to more than a million Rohingya refugees, to prevent coronavirus spread https://t.co/zeJMTzX5Al

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) April 9, 2020

World Bank says the coronavirus will set off recession for sub-Saharan Africa 

Sub-Saharan Africa in green. Image: Wikimedia

The World Bank predicted that sub-Saharan Africa will suffer its first recession in 25 years because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The bank says that the region’s economy could shrink between 2% to 5% and may cause a food security crisis.

Global trade on commodities these countries rely on will decrease and commodity prices will fall.

Several African countries have imposed lockdowns which will also impact the economy.

There are currently over 11,000 confirmed cases across the continent and nearly 600 deaths.

Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is forecast to fall sharply in 2020 and the region will suffer its first recession in 25 years, according to a World Bank report https://t.co/8a9v6JQm4M

— CNN International (@cnni) April 9, 2020

US Federal Reserve announces $2.3 trillion in additional lending to help support the economy

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Image: Wikimedia

The US Federal Reserve announced on Thursday that it will provide $2.3 trillion in loans to businesses and for the first time, to state and local governments.

This is the largest action the Fed has taken in any other financial crisis in US history.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that ‘the Fed’s role was to ‘provide as much relief and stability as we can during this period of constrained economic activity.’

Some of the measures include a $600 billion lending program for small businesses and $500 billion in loans to help support state and municipal governments manage its cash flow caused by the outbreak.

This announcement by the Fed comes on the same day that it was reported 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week.

Africans in Guangzhou remain on the streets after mass eviction

Dozens of African workers and students spent a second night on the streets of Guangzhou after they were evicted from hotels and apartments.

Evictions and door-to-door testing began after online rumours said that the coronavirus was spreading among the city’s African residents.

The All African Association of Guangzhou wrote an open letter for authorities to stop the inhuman treatment and racial discrimination of Africans.

VIDEO: While the world has adopted various measures to combat #Coronavirus, Chinese authorities are beginning to eject Africans from their homes and hotels over claims that they were importing the virus into the country.#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/x78SZhhSMO

— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) April 7, 2020

Thousands of Africans have been stuck in Wuhan since the lockdown in January.

The Nigerian embassy in Beijing announced that the government is preparing to evacuate citizens from China.