7/24/2023 0 Comments Download the last refuge![]() Tayseer Alkarim is a medical doctor with nine years of expertise in emergency response and medical operations in conflict zones and low-resource settings. A further failure to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Idlib will cost lives-and risk global health security further by allowing the virus to spread in one of the places that is least-equipped to contain it. The plight of Idlib is one of the most complex humanitarian dilemmas of our time, influenced by prolonged conflict, a looming COVID-19 outbreak, and the ongoing failure of the international community to take effective action. ![]() ![]() ![]() The briefing explains how donors and international humanitarian organizations can take action now to support local institutions, increase testing and treatment capacity, improve availability of PPE and public information, and press for an immediate ceasefire. This policy briefing by Tayseer Alkarim, Hanny Megally, and Leah Zamore delves into roots of the humanitarian crisis in Idlib, details the current capacity of the exhausted healthcare system amid the ongoing conflict, and examines what these constraints mean for mounting a response to the spread of the coronavirus. Why is Idlib the last refuge for internally displaced Syrians, and what can donors, international humanitarian actors, and local organizations do to ensure that they are not left behind as the world grapples with COVID-19? Photo: Internally displaced civilians in a camp in Idlib, Syria (© Mustafa Dahnon). Now, with the coronavirus pandemic posed to spread to an area with just 600 doctors and fewer than 50 adult ventilators for four million people, the situation is dire. A decade of conflict has left the healthcare system in ruins-and millions of displaced people in Idlib province were already suffering due to a lack of shelter and sanitation. The humanitarian crisis in northern Syria is on the verge of becoming a COVID-19 catastrophe.
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