Libya syria and yemen are bracing for a possible coronavirus outbreak officials there have shut down schools and impose travel restrictions but how can this virus be contained in conflict zones and can developing nations cope with it and i think this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program. From complete lockdowns of cities to building new hospitals rich countries appear to be better suited in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic but covered 19 is straining Health Systems and some governments are struggling and this raises fears that nations whose hospitals are closed or ill equipped may not be able to cope conflict zones are for particular concern libyas un recognized government in tripoli has declared a state of emergency its ordered the closure of its land air and sea crossings as well as schools for 3 weeks yemens government suspended all flights to and from airports under its control for 2 weeks and syria has delayed its problem entry elections and canceled most Public Events but its not just conflict zones the Palestinian Authority is the cleared a state of emergency in the occupied west bank while lebanon which is in the midst of an economic and financial crisis is expected to do the same afghanistan has closed all schools its canceled sporting events it shares a border with iran one of the worst affected countries and over in africa countries there have so far been largely spared from the worst of the pandemic but their numbers are slowly increasing kenya ethiopia sudan and guinea confirmed their 1st cases on friday and experts fear nations with an already weak Health Care System could struggle to cope the red cross says that includes countries like south sudan the democratic republic of congo and Central African republic. Will bring in our panel in just a moment but 1st were joined by dr s. A cardiologist at a hospital in syrias northern province of idlib dr somethings very much for speaking to us on inside story so of course officially syria has so far not recorded any coronavirus cases in your assessment as a doctor though what is the. The risk of an outbreak in syria particularly where you are an. Now im livin in the northwest of syria live and its somehow isolated from the outside where its. Just a few numbers of evil could cross the border into turkey go on go on and also the part of the river jean area are nearly claws some. People also can go and come there so if we are going to get it there are 2 sources from the region already and from the. How worried are you at the possibility of an outbreak is that a real concern of yours of course in it is because we hear absent so many crowds camps with unhealthy circumstances the also some cities are so much part of the at the north and already over the border. As people who are displaced from set up about them are and it is near if these are even there yet weve often reported on the state of hospitals and if there were you harwich of course as youre saying have suffered due to years of war so what would an outbreak then mean for the hospitals ability to provide care when you know that hospital there are now at that hospital compared to those and where its they are in the hospital and they are going in that circumstances their resources are air the council mobiles which we need are not all by little all the time so if such outbreak happened in fact we can do so much to bring vent its or to control it we dont know where its vital to isolate ations suspected or groups and we dont have facilities to grow the disease. You know at least its happened a lot thats many people would suffer from it and those patients should be treated should we realize as many patients will d suffer from a spread it to me failure and its the main that the the west because they need ventilators and we already dont have these for example our hospital with the i. C. U. Unit its just one hospital one been delayed and its not where can we borrow a what about the most basic recommend ation when you hear the advice from the World Health Organization for example that people just must wash their hands how difficult is that simple thing to do in italy where you are. Its not so much difficult but if you want to advise all people to do these advisors its not easy impact you know. Be able to try to educate people about the koran and its ways of prayer and try to assure them back its not so much an interest disease and in fact its not its not that then years this is but the problem that it spreads in horrible way so if it started the problem in stopping it. Washing hands keeping far away from patient away that there is going to start infection with the suspect at the d suspected chronic disease but 19 is the ways to prevent it but how could we can balance be able to take these meters is missionary burst be able who are rearing who are in a whole leap in the crowded camps where hygiene is not good right ok well leave it there we thank you very much dr sun id for speaking to us from in the thank you. Thank you. Lets bring in our panel now in beirut joining us via skype best school shes the middle east and Eastern Europe media manager for save the children also on skype from xenia a senior libya analyst at the International Crisis group and a former policy advisor took us on salami who served as head of the u. N. Support mission in libya welcome to you all thanks for joining us on inside story joe i start with you in the reporting now adays has been mainly focused on countries in europe which the World Health Organization is describing is the epicenter of the virus but lets look at conflict zones in particularly the middle east region which countries are the most vulnerable when it comes to an outbreak of coronavirus the 2 most definitely syria yemen so far they havent had just. Yemen has shut down its. Syria obviously its a defense. Case we have and i just said and physical and i cases we just cant imagine the outcome for millions of people who have been in the by use the news of war and how would this outbreak affect these people i mean how defenseless are People Living in environments that include war zones and refugee camps. The main issue is Specialized Services in syria for example how football doctors have left the country since the war started 9 years ago and today were starting that tense a year in the northeast for example. Would be 10 beds for the 10000 people who are very far from this figure and the northwest and the recently we saw massive this placement of populations due to 3 months of airstrikes and if the offensive saw those civilians women and children are living in overcrowded camps and you can imagine if there is a now to be what would satisfy sedation look like its practically impossible our eyes will get into a little more detail about the camps in just a moment but let me cross over to god as any bring you in from rome of course italy being one of the hardest hit countries over in europe but id like to talk to you about libya because according to reports coming out of libya cloud your officials there are saying that the corona virus has started to pose a direct threat to the country and officials are warning of its imminent outbreak what are you hearing from the ground about whats going on i mean officially. Still claim that there is no case of coronavirus but they have taken measures in the past 2 days they decided to close down schools both in tripoli controlled areas in the western and Eastern Libya which is under the control of general haftar so both sides have agreed to close schools and also agree to close cafes. When i was in libya 3 weeks ago and actually i was very surprised to see that already then in airports they had started to coronavirus checks upon landing even before italy started to implement this so this was surprising but there is a danger that if there were to be a case. Then the Health System in libya which is already terrible in the gadhafi era since has not been able to get back on its knees the Health System will see literally not cope with this yet what do you know what i mean can you elaborate on that a little bit or what i mean they wont be able to cope well Public Health care in libya was already a besom or for the basic Services Back scenes were very often missing maternity wards where where its car its even in cross the country even in a nonwar. Many of the nurses in libyas Health System traditionally i foreigners many used to be free to peanos the they started to flee the country about a year and a half ago 2 years ago because of the economic downturn and because the increase of hostilities so so we dont have that so the Health System now can only rely on local nurses theres no foreign medical staff in libya providing services and. Public hospitals you know barely have. Tents of care units so. Many libyans those who are wounded and those who are seriously ill normally just go abroad for for treatment now with the borders closed with with the Health System in libya being what it is. These avin years of intensive care provisions will not be available if we were to see a serious outbreak and and just to add on to what you were saying i mean this is one sophistic from the Global Health Security Index which rated the Health Security of 195. 00 countries around the world and when it comes to libya it said 111. 00 out of 195. 00 when it comes to early detection. So detecting the corona virus sounds like it would also be a worrying problem. Yes and in. Labs you know simple blood tests in libya until now are. Not so. Not in mint condition. Arrival of health kits or Detection Kits is very slow lets also remember that this is a country that is politically divided between 2 rival authorities so even the health ministry. And Health System is is victim of this political future and in therefore it will be difficult to coordinate deliveries of special special equipment or extra intensive care equipment and therefore. Testing for by positive cases and. Taking care of those that are considered infected will be a challenge they have started they have started in Eastern Libya you know individuals who have been tested mainly because they came in from abroad from countries that. Have showed case positive cases but they certainly do not have the means to do this at a large in large quantities joelle bus tour cloudier was talking about some of the preventative measures over in libya and weve seen these preventative measures being implemented in countries around the world for example the suspension of activities as well as Restricted Movement and access but if you implement those measures in refugee camps then the knock on effect will be that it will actually affect humanitarian work thats what the reports seem to suggest that must be a real concern for organizations like yours yes absolutely i mean especially in the case of yemen for example foreign aid workers need to fly into the country to be able to develop for guns and in command them and support the civilian populations if. Distinctions and stuff advance on in place it does have an effect on our own programs we have teams and continue we have yemenis. Thats the same in syria but said we still need to. Go in and expect come in and he counts and to the different camps and syria we need i thought and the civilian aid would because they themselves have not necessarily been to gains to face equivalent ill to be and how will you deal with this situation how will how will save the children and deal with this. In if in the case of syria we are preparing with the northwest and the northeast and other International Agencies on the ground to be able to face and now its been so for example we will see you with children and their families and we need to ensure that and that is tested positive how we can and make sure that the children and i was taken care of that the adult is in isolation but it doesnt affect the families survive as i said the displacement of the northwest has left many families in need of the simple basic aid the life whether its food clean water and you know what is very important was sold to face and how to make of kabul and so if we cannot quote to keep it in the council it would be initial so its 70 years of challenges that we need to talk in together and i mean we are all hoping that with the both of the closure the number if it happens will be limited and so far that is none of the i just it and i think studio yemen yeah you were just mentioning isolation a moment ago i mean theres this idea of social distancing that people should keep a distance from one another when it comes to coronavirus but but when you look at the situation. In a refugee camp and whether its in syria or in lebanon often overcrowded is that idea even plausible theyre not to its very difficult for example and live a decent we did the study with. You and we saw that some counts. In size by a 100 things sent and a 177 percent so thats addition and keep it coming to live in very small. As you say and these are tense so social distancing isnt the loss of the one you have. Sometimes living in the same space and lebanon its the same enfoldment camps. To the south and for many council to talking so if this will it is not then both of them they need its impossible for them for the insane and the. Acceptable hygiene of the counts of the most difficult settings to me out to make the salute like to talk to you about lebanon in just a moment ill come back to you over to close in room because we were talking about the number of cases in libya and you were saying that there were none so far but might there be some cases going under reported because some International Experts as well as observers are saying that for example in countries in africa there are relatively low number of cases because thats the result of poor reporting and low testing rates thats one theory so could that be the case in libya. Sure it is it is plausible and what weve seen the however so far is suspicion of some cases in one specific location in Eastern Libya and Authorities Say dismissing that has not and not being a case of coroner this infection but they brushed it away as some related animal related infection we dont really know whether this is true or not but certainly there is their risk of. Existing and not being detected. Theres also the risk of. A few libyans returning from trips abroad weve seen officials in syria we know of libya in seoul so returning from italy and so on bringing the buyers into the country and not showing the symptoms until much later but you know compared to other conflict countries libya has an advantage i mean compared to what we were hearing before about syria and it did have refugee camps its a very bad country very small population were only talking about 6000000 people that traditionally already have a very conservative way of living very much life is very much centered around there have ever been around public messaging we dont have rates what is the public a mess or how important is the public messaging sides when it comes to coronavirus and libya to sort of avoid a large scare. I mean some officials have gone public saying that in the virus were to hit they are unprepared but overall i said my feeling is that the libyans themselves are very much under estimating the dangers of this fire is people are still sort of almost joking about to some cases i received messages of people saying oh corona is too scared to come to new because the war so we intimidate the buyers so there is still a very humorous sort of attitude. About that bias and people are not taking it really is a serious threat or something that will affect them but looking ahead i think authorities should consider putting in place measures to stop what are the main public gatherings that are taking take place in libya when his funeral in the other one is. When exactly these are the only 2 public moments where you see. A concentration of people in a given site so if they want to really start the potential spread of this virus they also should consider taking measures in these 2 domains. These measures joelle have indeed been taken in lebanon and when you when it when you look at the situation in lebanon of course it has been a war torn country today how much how high is the risk in lebanon with the state of the Health Infrastructure in the hospitals affected by years of war. I mean they are with 2 Different Things that save the children who are con 11 and we will see with the Syrian Refugees you know that its the country it was the highest. Number in the wood so Syrian Refugees who live with the poor communities in lebanon because this is where they can afford to pay again to enclose contact with that have a nice population so far we have not i just say that any case of a few g. That has thats the positive focal and out and then you have the camps for example in the bekaa valley which. Isolated by nature you know they have a bunch of land and where they have huge is often dont need to mix with the population at all its because of sometimes issues and they get is it in c. So. You know. At the National Agency if it hasnt been 11 on we keeping an eye on any outbreak among the refugee population as for the society because there is then 7 cases of to. Register then 11 on the lebanese government and the authorities are handling this side of the sponsor and and the National Organizations are going to be asked to support it so far as long as the public system can face the outbreak and were hoping that you know we we wont have to step in but obviously were also in touch with. Any contingency and Emergency Planning and to what extent are countries like lebanon and the work that you do particularly with Syrian Refugees relying now on International Funding and what kind of response are you getting from the International Community when it comes to your work in coronavirus. Yes i mean i think that i dont fully either syria or yemen every year there is a an International Conference where we dont do this from around the world come together to pledge how defensive forwards. And yemenis and this. Is on april 2nd so a few days time and its supposed to take place and so do you have you have a list and have not heard whether its going to have the knowledge. Is now enjoying and again you know out of europe and. Waiting to see if people will actually be able to physically goal and support for the c. D. s so these are important moments for us where the International Community would need to come together and come with Financial Support and these thoughts and that by the outbreak or if you know National Funding needs to go to to come to these to support with the cone of this falls we will see an impact on the humanitarian in the sponsor both syria and yemen and this is something that is very worrying for agencies joe would you like to weigh in on the issue of International Funding when it comes to libya and coronavirus of course the International Community has played a huge rules in libya. Yeah i think the problem in libya is different its not so much an issue of curbing a International Funding in fact the International Community doesnt really fund that much because libya is still considered a rich country an Oil Producing country so the conflict or they can monetary side of the conflict only receives marginal funded from the International Community where the impact is going to be great areas on the peace talks as you as you might recall talks have been ongoing mediated by the u. N. Since since the late january these have floundered in many respects but theres still a keenness to keep them going now with the current outbreak across the world the chances of having these diplomatic meetings have reduced the International Engagement on libya has reduced as Key Countries including italy. Have their mind elsewhere so i think their big impact of the corona outbreak will be sort of reducing or closing the window or opportunity to. Push for negotiations and also divert the attention away from libya of Key International actors which extend the 18 which includes france away from libya and into their own domestic problems this will be the problem ok well have to leave it there we thank you very much for joining us you are the source from beirut and me from rome thanks for your time and earlier of course so we were joined by dr d. From it live in syria thanks for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website aljazeera dot com for further discussion you can also go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story you can join the conversation on twitter our handle is inside story for myself and the team in doha and in london by for now. Join the listening post as we turn the cameras on the media india has more than 424 Hour Television news channels. And focus on how they report on the stories that matter the most the states misleads the public the c. B. D. 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And im the clock and theyre all the top stories here on aljazeera and its only has reported a 25 percent increase in coronavirus death its longest single day uptick 368. 00 people died on sunday putting the total past 1800 thats nearly a week after a nationwide lockdown was declared on 16000000 people restricting travel and banning public gatherings if only is the worst affected country outside china. The u. S. Federal reserve has announced emergency measures aimed at containing the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic its cutting the benchmark Interest Rate to near 0 the same rate in place during the 2008 financial crisis meanwhile travel restrictions have caused chaos at a
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