Covid-19 Pandemic in Myanmar

The worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) spreading from Wuhan, China was confirmed to have reached Myanmar on 23 March 2020. The first confirmed case is a Myanmar national from Tedim Township, Chin state who returned from the US. The announcement of the confirmed case has shocked the nation and people end up panic by buying things at supermarkets across the country.  The prevention materials such as sanitizer, face masks and medicines were out of stock in the whole country. Although the government has taken preventive measures with the cancellation of festivals, exams, closed the borders and banned the entry of foreigners, people were fear of workers who returned from foreign countries might spread the virus because of the Myanmar’s government’s limited testing capability.

Furthermore, the majority of people in Myanmar have little or no access to public healthcare. Emergency response is needed in every places especially in the villages which is far from town and hard to reach according to the geography.  All of the CAD project activities are halted and held emergency meeting through online with all of our project staff. CAD decided to postpone all the activities which have to gather more than (5) people according to the government law and to replace some activities with covid-19 emergency response. To contribute the national covid-19 emergency response, CAD distributed emergency response materials such as PPEs, mask, thermometer, soap, hand sanitizer, germicide, face shield and glove to total (11) villages in Hakha township and (9) villages in Hnaring city with the approval of OBOS.

On the other hand, it is really important to educate the people to do and don’t when they go out and how to behave in a crowd to reduce and contain the spread of the virus. Therefore, CAD published Covid-19 prevention IEC poster (2000) copies to project villages with tri-languages (Hakha, Lautu and Myanmar) with pictures. In addition to this, CAD provided water resources to rural health care centers of locked-downed in near project villages.

Covid-19 Pandemic Prevention Poster in Chin Local Language

Since Myanmar reported its first case of Covid-19 positive patient on 23^rd March, the ministry of health has tested a total of 96,324 persons and there are 337 confirmed case including six death as of July 16, 2020. Addressing the community-based health care and providing the necessary information is an essential point since the pandemic is expected to have a long term. The information includes the preventive measures such as proper guidance of when and how to use mask, hand-washing, nutrition, food security and mental health-care for family. In addition, we cannot ignore to address violence against children, women and older people during stay-home period.

Under CAD Field-Office of Hakha Project Area,

Distributing Covid-19 Pandemic Preventive Materials

Under CAD Field-Office of Hnaring Project Area,

Collaborating with local nurses and CAD to prevent Covid-19 Pandemic