Coronavirus: fear of the worst in the Gaza Strip
In Gaza, on September 1, Palestinian officials wait to receive their salaries in front of a bank during the confinement decreed on August 25 in the territory.
REUTERS / Mohammed Salem
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Eighty-three new cases of coronavirus were identified in Gaza on Wednesday.
The Palestinian enclave now has more than 400 patients, the vast majority having now been infected outside the quarantine centers.
Local authorities, international institutions and non-governmental organizations are all worried about the development of the situation in this blockaded territory and the fragile health system.
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With our correspondent in Jerusalem,
Guilhem Delteil
In the northern Gaza Strip, where the main foci of infection are, movement is now severely restricted.
Authorities also ordered everyone who tested positive to be placed in solitary confinement.
"
We must isolate in specific structures all those who are infected, even those who have no symptoms,"
explains
Dr Abdelatif El Haj, director of international cooperation in the ministry of health in Gaza.
And that takes a lot of resources.
But why are we forced to do it?
Because we have no guarantee that a person in home isolation will not infect other members of their family.
"
In Gaza, one of the challenges of the fight against the coronavirus is also the essential cooperation of many actors: UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees which administers nearly a third of the population, but also non-governmental organizations which provide essential medical aid.
"
Cooperation is going well on the ground," said
Ayed Yaghi, director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Committee
.
But it does not exist at the decision-making level.
We do not participate in the decision-making process.
This remains solely a prerogative of the Ministry of Health.
"
NGOs and international institutions call in particular for the launch of awareness campaigns.
They believe that the barrier gestures have not been sufficiently adopted by the population.
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To read also: In Gaza, the coronavirus begins to spread and causes concern
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Gaza
Palestinian territories
Coronavirus
Health and medicine
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