Super cyclone hits India and Bangladesh

Winds of up to 105 mph and heavy rainfall battered coastal regions of India and Bangladesh as Cyclone Amphan made landfall on Wednesday. More than 448,000 people in India fled their homes, while Bangladeshi authorities relocated 2.4 million people. Amphan is the first super cyclone in the region since 1999.

How will the storm affect the coronavirus response? Officials have predicted the cyclone could destroy houses and flood crowded cities like Kolkata, India, which has nearly 1,500 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Bangladeshi officials assigned a medical team to each storm shelter in their country. Aid workers also set up 50 shelters at refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where authorities confirmed 10 coronavirus cases last week.

Dig deeper: Read my report with Mindy Belz about how aid groups are trying to protect refugees in Bangladesh and around the world during the pandemic.