Refugee camps have avoided the worst of the pandemic. That could be about to change.
In the meantime, the virus found its victims elsewhere. But that has begun to change.
Nearly six months into the pandemic, advocates warn, the coronavirus has started to find new footholds in some camps, or in dangerous proximity, threatening some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
A matter of time
For the millions of people around the world displaced by economic collapse, violence and war, practices like social distancing, hand-washing and isolating the sick and most at risk are often impossible.
Last week, the Gaza Strip, one of the poorest and most densely populated places on Earth, reported its first official cases of community transmission. Within days, tens of patients and one death were confirmed in the blockaded coastal enclave, where clean water, electricity and medical care are in critically short supply.
Nearly 80 percent of Gaza’s roughly 2 million residents depend on international assistance after decades of conflict, and nearly 600,000 Palestinians still live in urban, slum-like refugee camps. …continued .
[Source: Washington Post]