UN / COVID-19 SYRIA UPDATE

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric expressed concern over “the potential impact of the virus on millions of people across Syria, and particularly the over 900,000 people who remain displaced due to hostilities since December 1st in the country’s northwest.” UNIFEED

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:26
• Production Date: 26 March 2020
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: STEPHANE DUJARRIC
• Corporate Name: WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION - WHO
• Subject Topical: CONFLICT SITUATION; DISEASE CONTROL; DISPLACED PERSONS; HEALTH
• Geographic Subject: SYRIA
• MAMS Id: 2542097
• Parent Id: 2542097
• Alternate Title: unifeed200326b

Description

UN / COVID-19 SYRIA
TRT: 01:26
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS

DATELINE: 26 MARCH 2020, NEW YORK CITY

Shotlist

FILE

1. Aerial shot, exterior UN Headquarters

24 MARCH 2020, NEW YORK CITY

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General:
“I can tell that we are of course deeply concerned about the potential impact of the virus on millions of people across Syria, and particularly the over 900,000 people who remain displaced due to hostilities since December 1st in the country’s northwest. According to the World Health Organization, the displaced live in conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to respiratory infections. Besides overcrowding, they also face physical and mental stress and deprivation due to the lack of housing, food, and clean water. There are currently over 6 million internally displaced people throughout the country. WHO is responding across Syria. It is prioritizing prevention and preparedness and risk communication by supporting health responders to detect, diagnose and prevent spread, surveillance of entry points, provision of protective equipment, and training of health workers. Across the country, efforts are being accelerated to prepare laboratories and isolation wards, to inform the public, health facilities and selective intensive care units are being prepared, and communities most at risk have been identified. A particular focus has given to the northwest of the county where WHO is shipping additional ventilators and personal protective equipment to better cope with the strain on health care.”

Storyline

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric today (26 Mar) expressed concern over “the potential impact of the virus on millions of people across Syria, and particularly the over 900,000 people who remain displaced due to hostilities since December 1st in the country’s northwest.”

Dujarric said that according to the World Health Organization (WHO), “the displaced live in conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to respiratory infections.”

Besides overcrowding, he said, the over 6 million internally displaced people (IDPs) throughout the country “also face physical and mental stress and deprivation due to the lack of housing, food, and clean water.”

The spokesperson said the WHO is “prioritizing prevention and preparedness and risk communication by supporting health responders to detect, diagnose and prevent spread, surveillance of entry points, provision of protective equipment, and training of health workers.”

Across the country, he said, “efforts are being accelerated to prepare laboratories and isolation wards, to inform the public, health facilities and selective intensive care units are being prepared, and communities most at risk have been identified.”

A particular focus, Dujarric added, has given to the country’s northwest “where WHO is shipping additional ventilators and personal protective equipment to better cope with the strain on health care.”