DHAKA: Two hospitals in Bangladesh dedicated to fighting the coronavirus have refused to treat patients from one of the country’s worst slums, an activist said on Wednesday.

Members of the Bihari community complain the pandemic has highlighted the discrimination they have endured for decades.

Some 32,000 Biharis live in Geneva Camp — one of the most desperate slums in the country — where rights lawyer Khalid Hussain and police say two residents tested positive for coronavirus.

Hussain said a state-run hospital meant specifically for Covid-19 patients had refused to admit the two, declaring their condition “not critical”.

Now Geneva Camp residents were being rejected by another local hospital no matter what their health issue was, Hussain said, as staff fear they may catch the virus.

Two members of Bihari community who tested positive for Covid-19 refused admission

About 500,000 Biharis live in 116 settlements across Bangladesh, a country of 168 million people.

Bihari community leader Sadakat Khan Fakku said a man infected with coronavirus from another camp had also been turned away by a local hospital, and he was now self-quarantined in a one-room home with his family.

None of the hospitals would comment on the allegations, but Nasima Sultana, deputy head of Bangladesh’s health department, denied discrimination.

“There are 10 million slum people in Dhaka,” she said.

“We don’t have enough beds,” she added, saying people with mild symptoms should treat themselves at home.

Advocate Hussain said the two infected men from Geneva camp had been isolated with 20 families, but that social distancing was almost impossible in so crowded a place.

He said at least six people in the slum have died in recent weeks with coronavirus-type symptoms such as viral fever and respiratory problems.

“None of them was tested, so we don’t know whether they had coronavirus,” he said.

According to the authorities, 120 people had died and 3,800 others been infected with coronavirus, but experts say more testing would reveal far higher figures.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2020