About one-third of the delta territory remains underwater. Flooding continued for a month in what the government has described as the worst flooding since 2004.
“The space is underwater, there is no food, there is enough drinking water,” farmer Muzaffar Ali in the northeastern district of Sunamganj told the AFP news agency.
“In this situation, who cares about social remoteness or if they dress in masks? I leave that to God. He will decide.”
Nepal has been hit hard by landslides and floods, with at least 155 other people killed and 57 missing since mid-June, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
“The risk of COVID-19 adds demanding situations to our rescue and search teams,” Murari Wasti, head of Nepal’s National Emergency Operations Center, told AFP.
The number of landslides has increased this year, with experts saying the great earthquake of 2015 and the structure of other roads can cause fatal landslides.
“The terremotoarray … separates the earth and heavy monsoon rains can cause disturbances. This year can be a cumulative effect,” AFP told the geologist Basanta Raj Adhikari.
In assam state in northeastern India, where at least 50 other people have died in the past 10 days, flooding receded when the government rushed to reach another 1.5 million people whose homes and communities had been damaged.
More than 37,000 villagers in aid camps and special attention is being paid to physical fitness problems, assam Disaster Management Authority coordinator Pankaj Chakrarvarty told the AFP.
“It is not always imaginable to keep social distance in the camps,” said one evacuee, Ranjit Rabha. “Fortunately, here in our camp, we have no citizens who are positive for COVID-19.”
In Kaziranga National Park in Assam, a World Heritage site, 143 animals have died to date, 16 rare rhinos of a horn.
In India’s impoverished bihar state, home to 125 million people, at least 24 people have died and at least 4 million have been affected by heavy rains, with damaged homes and villages.
More than 300,000 people were evacuated to relief camps and officials warned of additional clouds over the next two days.
The state, which has a fragile fitness system, has recorded more than 48,000 COVID-19 infections and 282 virus-related deaths.
That’s a much smaller death toll than in other densely populated states that are experiencing a strong buildup of cases, but with expert caution on peaks in India, Bihar may face a daunting task to prevent the virus.
“Unless the state’s passing government follows the style of New Delhi’s passing government, where hotels have become protracted hospitals and been being tested, the stage would go beyond full control,” said Dr Sunil Kumar, a fitness expert at Bihar.
According to knowledge collected through Johns Hopkins University, India recorded approximately 1.7 million cases of coronavirus.
Bihar officials are concerned that flooding may worsen the spread of the infectious disease.
“Reaching those affected by the floods and offering them help is not easy because of concerns about the pandemic,” aid worker Mahendar Yadav said.
Indian cricket captain Virat Kolhi and his wife, actress Anushka Sharma, pledged Thursday to flood relief efforts in Bihar and Assam.
Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who was born in Bihar, also pledged to donate to the rescue.
Meanwhile, at least 16 people, joined by 15 young people aged one to five, and one woman was killed and dozens of houses destroyed when flash floods hit a village in eastern Afghanistan, an official said Saturday.
On Friday night, floods caused by torrential rains hit a village in Nangarhar province, district governor Naimatullah Noorzai told AFP news agency.
Four young men were also injured and dozens of houses were destroyed, Noorzai said.
A relief operation is underway to help affected families, and the crisis hits as the country celebrates the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
Summer brings heavy rains to eastern Afghanistan. Flash flooding in the region kills loads and injures many more each year.