Covid-19

On 8 September 2020, a fire broke out on Greece’s island of Lesbos, in Moria camp, which hosted some 13,000 refugees and migrants, a camp that is meant to have capacity for fewer than 3,000. Thousands of refugees and migrants have fled the flames and are now displaced on the road to Mytilini. Reports indicate that no facilities have survived the fire.

Since March 2020, Eswatini, a landlocked country with a population of 1.1 million has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic spreading across  all the 4 regions   of the country . To date, the number of confirmed cases reported has risen to 9 482 with 216 deaths giving case fatality rate of 2.3%. The country is experiencing rapid rise in the number of cases and deaths for the past 3 weeks. The daily number of positive cases is above 160 compared to less than 20 a month ago.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is currently experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases nationwide since February 2021 with most new cases reported from the National Capital District (NCD). As of 18 March 2021, a total of 2790 confirmed cases including 36 deaths have been reported. Fourteen of these deaths have been reported since the beginning of March 2021. The total number of reported cases and deaths are likely significantly underreported due to poor reporting and very limited testing across the country.

Dr Tedros, WHO Director-General; Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director of Health Emergencies Programme; Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead on COVID-19; Dr Nedret Emiroglu, Director of Country Readiness Strengthening; Flavio Salio, Network Leader for Emergency Medical Teams; Amb Toni Frisch, Chair of Emergency Medical Teams Strategic Advisory Group.