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UN agency for Palestinian refugees launches $95 million appeal to keep COVID at bay

UNRWA/Louise Wateridge A health worker provides COVID-19 information to a patient visiting the Jerusalem Health Center.     The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a health and socio-economic emergency across the occupied Palestinian territory, the UN agency for the region warned on Friday, noting a swell of coronavirus cases in recent weeks.  The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA), said that it requires some $95 million to cover the emergency needs of 5.6 million […]

Uncomfortable bedfellows: balancing health and economics in a global crisis

COVID-19 threatens the health and wellbeing of millions of people the world over, through malnutrition, preventable disease, delayed diagnoses and psychological hardship. All these threats co-exist with the threat of the virus itself, and are consequences of economic and social ‘lockdowns’ imposed by governments to curb the spread of COVID-19.  Understanding the intimate link between […]

UN agencies call for urgent disembarkation of hundreds rescued in the Mediterranean

Frontex/Francesco Malavolta Migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea are rescued by a Belgian ship (file photo).    Hundreds of rescued migrants and refugees currently on board three vessels in the Central Mediterranean, some of whom have been stuck at sea for weeks, must be brought to shore immediately, two UN agencies said on Saturday. The International Organization for […]

‘Widespread’ COVID-19 transmission, limited testing, deepen Syria’s humanitarian woes

© OCHA In Syria, displaced people wear face masks and practice social distancing.     COVID-19 is having a dramatic impact on health services in Syria, where limited testing is obscuring the real extent of the pandemic, the UN’s Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator said on Thursday. “Reports of healthcare facilities filling up, of rising numbers of death […]