UN: No coronavirus cases among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon

Palestinians school children at a refugee camp in Beirut, in Lebanon on 6 March 2012 [Mohammed Asad/Apaimages]

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced that there have been no cases of the coronavirus reported among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

UNRWA spokesperson in Lebanon, Hoda Samra, said: “Until now, there are no cases among Palestinian refugees in Sidon.”

She explained that the UN agency will start a new campaign of preventive measures and awareness-raising through social media about the virus in order to prevent an outbreak.

There have been 61 cases of the coronavirus detected in Lebanon with two patients dying from the disease.

In the Middle East, Iran has been the worst hit by the virus with 354 people dead and 9,000 infected. The country’s authorities temporarily released about 70,000 prisoners to avoid the spread of the virus.

READ: WHO raises global risk of coronavirus from ‘high’ to ‘very high’

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