50,000 IDPs in Arakan State slated to receive Covid vaccine in upcoming round of jabs

By DMG 21 Aug 2021

DMG Newsroom
21 August 2021, Sittwe 

As many as 50,000 displaced people from Arakanese and Muslim IDP camps in Arakan State will be vaccinated against Covid-19, a member of the Arakan State military council told DMG on Saturday. 

The state’s military government has planned to provide the vaccine to 30,000 people from Arakanese IDP camps and 20,000 people from Muslim IDP camps, said U Hla Thein, who serves as spokesman for the council. 

“We do not know when the vaccines will arrive and when we can vaccinate. If the vaccine from China arrives in Yangon, they will arrive in Arakan [thereafter]. Once we receive the vaccines, we will provide the vaccine to them,” U Hla Thein said. 

This upcoming week, Arakan State’s Department of Public Health will begin administering second doses of the vaccine to more than 90,000 people who were part of the first large-scale vaccination drive under the military regime that seized power on February 1. 

“Some IDPs were vaccinated with the first dose, so they will get the second shot very soon,” U Hla Then said. 

Ko Zaw Zaw Tun, secretary of the Rakhine Ethnics Congress (REC), said inoculating at IDP camps was a good initiative, adding that he welcomed the inclusion of Muslim displacement camps in the vaccination campaign. 

“If the vaccination is for 30,000 IDPs, it will work [in preventing the virus’s spread] to some extent. I think it is good for IDPs to vaccinate,” he said. 

There are more than 100,000 Arakanese IDPs and more than 200,000 Muslim IDPs in Arakan State, according to the REC.