clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

UN: WHO delivers new coronavirus examination kits to Gaza

October 15, 2020 at 2:41 pm

Former UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov attends a press conference in Gaza on 25 September 2017 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has delivered five new coronavirus testing kits to the Health Ministry in the besieged Gaza Strip, the UN Middle East special envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, announced yesterday.

“WHO delivered 5 extraction kits to the local health authorities in the Gaza Strip that are enough to conduct 10,000 Covid-19 tests,” tweeted Mladenov. “The kits will help to maintain testing capacity and contain the spread of the virus.” He praised the German government for financing the kits.

Mladenov said recently that 14,000 UK-funded swabs were delivered by the organisation. “The UN continues to assist by supplying critical Covid-19 supplies to Gaza,” he pointed out.

So far, a total of 55,951 Palestinians have contracted the virus, 48,719 of whom have recovered, and 455 have died, according to official data. Just over 4,100 of the infected people are in Gaza, including 26 fatalities, said the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

READ: Gaza delivers medicines to homes as coronavirus lockdown continues