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.
3-26 | Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières Head of Emergency Desk Karline Kleijer: “We are horrified by the continued violence in Tigray, Ethiopia. This includes the extrajudicial killings of at least four men who were dragged off public buses and executed by soldiers, while our staff members were present, on Tuesday 23 March.
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.
3-24 | Initial reports 15 people dead, thousands displaced, and an MSF clinic completely destroyed
3-18 | There are currently around 860,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Most of them live in Cox’s Bazar district. The activities which MSF carries out for these refugees are centralized around the so-called ‘mega camp’, a large collection of 26 camps. In recent years, barbed and razor wire fencing was erected. The living conditions for the refugees keep deteriorating due to COVID-19 measures, among other factors. Bernard Wiseman is head of mission in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh and describes the hard dilemma the Rohingya are facing there.