Published : 08-05-2020
UNRWA, in partnership with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has opened an isolation center for covid-19 patients in Siblin Training Center, in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.
The center has been equipped with 100 beds in order to hospitalize coronavirus-stirkcen patients and suspected cases.
An MSF team of professional doctors and experts have assisted the anti-coronavirus move and pledged to regularly check the patients’ condition.
Last week, a photo circulated on social media networks sparked outrage after it revealed the unequipped quarantine room in which a coronavirus-stricken Palestinian family from Syria has been confined in AlJaleel refugee camp, in Lebanon’s Baalbek city. Only a handful of mattresses and pillows figure on the circulated picture.
Activists said the facility is similar to a prison room and is unfit for extended home quarantines. They lashed out at UNRWA’s Director of Lebanon Operations, urging him to take immediate steps in order to transfer the family to Rafic Hariri Hospital or other equipped quarantine facilities.
The calls were launched shortly after UNRWA said five residents of the Jalil (Wavel) Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Authorities closed all entrances to AlJalil Palestinian camp in eastern Lebanon, heightening concerns the virus could further spread among its overcrowded population.
The people infected with the virus are relatives of a Palestinian woman from Syria who tested positive earlier and have been quarantined inside their home, according to a statement from UNRWA.
Lebanon, a tiny country of five million people, is host to tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, most of them living in squalid camps with no access to public services, with limited employment opportunities and no rights to ownership.
UNRWA, in partnership with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has opened an isolation center for covid-19 patients in Siblin Training Center, in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.
The center has been equipped with 100 beds in order to hospitalize coronavirus-stirkcen patients and suspected cases.
An MSF team of professional doctors and experts have assisted the anti-coronavirus move and pledged to regularly check the patients’ condition.
Last week, a photo circulated on social media networks sparked outrage after it revealed the unequipped quarantine room in which a coronavirus-stricken Palestinian family from Syria has been confined in AlJaleel refugee camp, in Lebanon’s Baalbek city. Only a handful of mattresses and pillows figure on the circulated picture.
Activists said the facility is similar to a prison room and is unfit for extended home quarantines. They lashed out at UNRWA’s Director of Lebanon Operations, urging him to take immediate steps in order to transfer the family to Rafic Hariri Hospital or other equipped quarantine facilities.
The calls were launched shortly after UNRWA said five residents of the Jalil (Wavel) Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Authorities closed all entrances to AlJalil Palestinian camp in eastern Lebanon, heightening concerns the virus could further spread among its overcrowded population.
The people infected with the virus are relatives of a Palestinian woman from Syria who tested positive earlier and have been quarantined inside their home, according to a statement from UNRWA.
Lebanon, a tiny country of five million people, is host to tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, most of them living in squalid camps with no access to public services, with limited employment opportunities and no rights to ownership.
