UN aid chief says Syrian
COVID-19 cases are `tip of iceberg'
Associated Press
EDITH M. LEDERER
,Associated Press•
March 31, 2020
Medical workers oversee the
disinfection of the streets to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Qamishli,
Syria, Tuesday, March 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
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Virus Outbreak Syria
Medical workers oversee the
disinfection of the streets to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Qamishli,
Syria, Tuesday, March 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N.
humanitarian chief warned Monday that the 10 cases of COVID-19 and one death
confirmed in Syria are just “the tip of the iceberg,” and judging from other
countries “a devastating impact” can be expected on vulnerable communities.
Mark Lowcock told the U.N.
Security Council that “all efforts to prevent, detect and respond to COVID-19
are impeded by Syria’s fragile health system,” noting that only around half the
country’s hospitals and primary health care facilities were fully functional at
the end of 2019.
He said efforts to prevent and
combat the virus are also impeded by high levels of population movement, challenges
to obtaining critical supplies including protective equipment and ventilators,
and difficulties of isolating in crowded camps for the displaced with “low
levels of sanitation services.”
With the Syrian conflict
entering its 10th year this month, Lowcock said, over half the population has
been forced to flee their homes, more than 11 million people in the country
including nearly 5 million children need humanitarian assistance, almost eight
million people don’t have reliable access to food, over 20 percent more than
last year, and 500,000 children are chronically malnourished.
He said humanitarian needs in
Syria “remain enormous,” with data showing clear evidence of deteriorating
conditions since December, including increased rates of stunting — “a consequence
of child malnutrition, from which it is rarely possible fully to recover.”
In the last rebel-held
stronghold in northwest Syria, he said, almost 3 out of 10 displaced children
under the age of five are stunted.
U.N. special envoy for Syria
Geir Pedersen told the council that “after terrible violence, an uneasy calm
prevails on the ground – and now, Syrians face a new potentially devastating
threat in COVID-19.”
He echoed U.N.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call for an immediate global cease-fire in
all conflicts to tackle the coronavirus, warning that “Syria is at high risk of
being unable to contain the pandemic.”
In northwest Syria, he said,
“there has been a significant decrease in violence, especially in aerial
attacks and ground operations. Sporadic incidents continue, involving all
sides.”
And in the northeast, he
expressed appreciation that arrangements between key parties including Russia,
Turkey, the United States and Syrians, “also continue to broadly hold.”
“But in both the northeast and
northwest, there is a real risk of hostilities resuming,” Pedersen said in a
video briefing to the council.
“If that happened, the
pre-existing dangers to civilians would be multiplied by the pandemic and the
virus would spread like wildfire, with devastating effects for the Syrian
people – humanitarian, societal and economic. It could rebound across
international borders.”
He urged all countries to avoid
this scenario by cementing existing arrangements into a nationwide cease-fire.
Pedersen said the U.N. is
engaging concerned countries to put aside all hurdles and ensure humanitarian
exemptions so critical items can be moved into Syria urgently to combat
COVID-19.
“I welcome the initial
engagement by the United States with us in this regard, and stress the need for
utmost urgency.” he said,
He gave no details but the U.S.
State Department said $16.8 million of nearly $274 million that Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo announced Friday in emergency health and humanitarian aid to
64 of the world’s most at-risk countries in response to the pandemic would go
to Syria.
U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft
strongly supported a sustained cease-fire, “not another tactical pause that
allows Syrian forces and their Russian and Iranian allies to rest before
resuming their campaign of terror in the northwest.”
She also urged more U.N.
cross-border operations, criticizing Russia and China for blocking a crossing
in the northeast that has prevented badly needed medical aid and equipment from
getting into the area.
The Security Council meeting by
video conference was closed, but a number of speeches were released by the U.N.
and some council nations.
The council issued a press
statement after the meeting expressing concern at the humanitarian situation in
Syria and the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and called for
unimpeded humanitarian aid deliveries and “a sustained period of calm”
throughout the country.
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