Without soap or disinfectants ... This is how Syrian refugees in Lebanon face the threat of the Corona virus

Syrian refugee Muhammad al-Bukhas is doing his best to protect his family from the newly created Corona virus by maintaining the highest possible level of hygiene for the camp in which they reside.

But with not enough soap or money to buy antiseptics or masks, there is a lot to do.

Al-Bukhas, 40, said, “They gave us awareness and distributed to us each one a bar of soap and this is enough. I go to the pharmacy, the muzzle is four thousand and seven thousand (Lebanese pounds), we cannot answer,” referring to the relief workers who visited this camp in northern Lebanon the week.

Al-Bakhs, who fled to Lebanon from Homs in Syria eight years ago and lives with his wife and child, added, "We are asking for sterilizers, we are asking for sprays for the camp, we are a big complex and the Syrians have large camps, and we are asking the United Nations, we are appealing to the world to help us, and we have nothing to keep Ourselves and hygiene, more than that.

Lebanon has monitored 149 new cases of coronavirus, four of whom have died of the disease so far.

No injuries
No cases have yet been detected among the Syrian refugees, who are estimated to number one million, among Lebanon's six million people.

With the Lebanese health system suffering due to the epidemic, the government is concerned that the virus will reach Syrian and Palestinian refugee camps in the country.

Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan said that refugee health care is a shared responsibility between Lebanon and United Nations agencies, stressing that the international community has been slow to react to the crisis.

He added, "I see that the international community, with its international institutions, is a little late in making plans or thinking about establishing a field hospital or with the support of the Lebanese Ministry of Health so that it can carry out its duties during this period towards the Lebanese society in addition to the Palestinian and Syrian brothers."

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said efforts to combat the spread of the Corona virus in refugee communities began early.

Public awareness campaigns and distributions of public health materials are being carried out, in addition to the necessary additional hospitalization in hospitals to increase their capacity to accommodate more patients.

"We are all working around the clock," said Lisa Abu Khaled, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon.

While the Lebanese Minister of Health indicated that there are difficulties in maintaining standards of personal hygiene in view of the high population density in the camps, noting that the spread of the Corona virus represents a real danger.

He added that "the Corona crisis in Lebanon must be the focus of the international community to save the Lebanese society, the Syrian society and the Palestinian community ... what we are suffering unilaterally as a Lebanese people in which there is a lot of fortification and a lot of lack of responsibility or escape from responsibility to bear this humanitarian crisis resulting from the Syrian crisis and from The flabby Lebanese economic reality. "

It is noteworthy that Lebanon was suffering from a financial and economic crisis even before it was exposed to the Coronavirus, while the government was trying to obtain foreign aid for its public health system.

The Corona virus exacerbates the difficulties experienced by refugees who have been living in extreme poverty for years inside Lebanon, and aid workers say that refugees do not have enough water to wash their hands regularly, especially as they only get water in their camps by truck.

Under the current situation, access to health care may also present a dilemma for them, because if refugees need hospitalization, they cannot afford the cost of transportation or the cost of treatment.