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Bangladesh: Monsoon Floods Emergency Appeal n° MDRBD022 EPoA update n° 4

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Bangladesh
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IFRC
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Summary of operation update:

This operation update is issued mainly to inform about the progress of operation covering the period of 18 July 2019 until 30 April 2020. The planned response actions reflect the current situation and information available at this time of the operation. Details on the planned activities are available in the Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA) issued on 16 September 2019.

As of this reporting period, the operation has reached a total of 31,250 people in shelter; 73,291 people in livelihoods and basic needs; 254,480 people in health and 81,016 people in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) activities.
The Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) activities have been planned for the recovery phase and depending on funding coverage, the activities will be adjusted and carried out accordingly.

The EA is only 38 per cent funded which has left some key sectoral areas of the activities with significant funding gaps due to budget limitations. BDRCS finished the emergency support in January 2020 and currently going into the recovery activities. As such, due to this funding gap, the recovery activities may reach less number of people than targeted.

The COVID-19 pandemic1 is affecting 215 countries and territories around the world and has caused at least 217,769 deaths as of 30 April 2020. Bangladesh is not exclusive from this situation. The first three cases in Bangladesh were confirmed by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) on 8 March 2020. Health Minister of Bangladesh declared two more cases of COVID-19 on 15 March 2020 (returned from Germany and Italy). On 16 March 2020, three more cases were confirmed. The number of cases has been increasing and as of 30 April 2020 , there are 8,238 confirmed cases in 63 districts (out of 64) with 170 deaths.

As the COVID-19 positive cases increases, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) on 24 March 2020 declared lockdown and closure of all public and private offices from 26 March to 4 April as containment measures. Considering the evolving situation; the GoB has extended the lockdown five times so far. As per the last gazette notification by the GoB, the lockdown has been extended up to 5 May 2020.

The 2019 Flood Recovery Operations team of BDRCS and IFRC has started the community level activities from February 2020. Before the pandemic situation worsened, the programme had accomplished including area selection; conducted necessary assessment for programmes through deployment of National Disaster Respones Teams (NDRTs) to conduct households assessment; finalized the date, venue, resource persons for Training of Trainers (ToTs) of Participatory Safe Shelter Awareness (PASSA), livelihood and Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST); process completed for HR recruitment; finalized the date and also invited local masons and carpenters for the orientation; process completed for opening the individual bank accounts for beneficiaries; procured corrugated galvanized iron sheets (CGIs); conducted two batches of midwives trainings; and organized inception meetings. But due to the pandemic situation the entire recovery programme has been postponed when it was at the highest position to perform.

Therefore, the operation will continue adapting to the evolving situation and also adhering to the country regulations for the safety and betterment of the community people being assisted in particular.