4-1 | Beirut, 26 March 2021 (MSF) - Médecins Sans Frontières /Doctors Without Borders (MSF) started vaccinating elderly people and medical personnel in nursing homes against covid-19 on March 19th following an agreement with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH).To date, 1,050 people were vaccinated by the mobile teams sent out by MSF across the country, starting in Baalbeck (Chlifa, El Sharawneh), Bekaa valley (Hermel), South Lebanon (Abbasiyeh), Mount Lebanon (Zouk and Hammana).
4-1 | I saw something new in Baghdad recently. At one of the city’s many checkpoints, men in white coats and N95 masks were standing in front of the soldiers, checking whether passengers in minivans were wearing their masks. The cigarette vendors that wind their way through the waiting cars had added a sideline in selling surgical masks.
4-1 | Up until March 2021, Papua New Guinea had been largely spared of any major COVID-19 outbreak. Within a few weeks, confirmed COVID-19 cases have tripled and increasing numbers of healthcare staff are testing positive, pushing them into home quarantine. The health system in Papua New Guinea is at risk of collapsing as health facilities managing COVID-19 are close to capacity and almost too stretched to provide regular primary healthcare.
3-24 | Since February, another heavy wave of COVID-19 has swept through the West Bank. Over 20,000 patients are currently being treated for COVID-19. This has added further pressure to an already fragile healthcare system, leaving medical staff struggling to provide adequate care to a soaring number of patients. Both the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authorities must immediately, as a matter of the utmost priority, significantly increase efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 and its new variants.
3-17 | Dotted across Marib governorate, in northeast Yemen, are 134 camps – temporary home to Yemenis displaced from their homes by the six-year-long conflict, African migrants stranded in Yemen, and members of a vulnerable minority group from Yemen known as Al-Muhamasheen.Before the start of the conflict, Marib was home to almost 400,000 people, according to local authorities. Now, it hosts nearly 2.7 million people including displaced from elsewhere, all looking for a safe haven.