In response to the growing coronavirus outbreak in Senegal, where as of early Wednesday morning the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases had climbed to 175, the government has closed the country’s airspace and shut down restaurants, schools and even mosques. The president declared a state of emergency this week, imposing travel restrictions and a curfew of 8 p.m.But many people are not following recommendations to remain 2 meters apart and to wash hands regularly. In a country where only half the population is literate, how can people get the message out?To spread awareness, some people are getting creative.Alpha Sy (pronounced al-fa cee) is an art student and a member of Senegalese graffiti artist collective, RBS, or Radikl Bomb Shot. The group of about 30 artists has been creating murals around Dakar to illustrate proper hygiene practices and to encourage people to stay home and respect the curfew.In a country with a low literacy rate, art can help spread important information about how to stay safe during the coronavirus outbreak. (Alpha Sy)The first of the COVID-19 murals was done in partnership with Dakar’s Cheikh Anta Diop University, on the school’s campus.Abdoulaye Sow, a director at the university who commissioned the mural, said the school is an ideal location for the mural because the area gets a lot of foot traffic.He said people don’t have time to stop for long, so a mural like this allows the message to have the greatest impact.The graffiti collective has completed three murals thus far. They hope to create about a dozen COVID-related works so that their message can be seen in every neighborhood in Dakar.
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Month: April 2020
Vietnam Latest to Lock Down, While US Braces for Huge Death Toll
U.S. officials say Americans should be prepared for a potential 100,000 to 240,000 deaths from the novel coronavirus outbreak, while stressing the need to keep social distancing measures in place to give the best chance of lessening the toll.Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he hopes the number will not go that high, but that realistically people should be ready.“People are suffering. People are dying,” he said. “It’s inconvenient from a societal standpoint, from an economic standpoint to go through this. But this is going to be the answer to our problems. So, let’s all pull together and make sure, as we look forward to the next 30 days, we do it with all the intensity and force that we can.”Countries all over the world have locked down cities, regions and even their entire nations to try to stop the virus from spreading.One of the latest to put in place a two-week ban on all but essential activities is Vietnam, which started Wednesday.Last week, New Zealand shut down restaurants, bars, offices and schools. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday it is too early to tell to what extent those measures have helped so far and advocated more testing to actively track down infections and stop new transmissions.Her government reported 61 new cases to push New Zealand’s total to 708Vietnam has ordered a national lockdown, as well as moved to decrease public transit, Ho Chi Minh, March 31, 2020.”If virus is in the community in this way… then worst thing we can do is to relax and be complacent, and allow the silent spread,” Ardern said.In South Korea, where mass testing has helped level off local transmission rates, official reported 101 new cases Wednesday. The country also started enforcing new 14-day quarantines for anyone entering the country.The risks of imported cases undermining successes in controlling community spread of COVID-19 have prompted similar measures in China, which for several months was by far the world leader in coronavirus cases but now has become a sign for hope with gradual lifting of lockdown restrictions.The United States, Italy and Spain remain the global hotspots with the most cases and deaths.German health officials said Wednesday there were about 5,500 new cases there, putting the country on track to soon become the next to surpass China.Meanwhile, in keeping with a plea from U.N. chief Antonio Guterres for parties in the world’s conflicts to take this opportunity to halt their fighting, the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday urged Afghanistan’s warring sides to implement a cease-fire.The Council “called on the political leadership of Afghanistan to put aside their differences and put the interest of the country first.”
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Somaliland Reports First COVID-19 Cases
Authorities in the self-declared republic of Somaliland reported the territory’s first two cases of coronavirus on Tuesday.Health officials in the capital, Hargeisa, said samples taken from two individuals — a local man who visited Britain and a Chinese man — had tested positive for COVID-19. Authorities were trying to track down people the men had contact with.Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in May 1991 but has never received international recognition. The two cases brought the number of confirmed cases in Somalia to five, all of them travel-related.Awareness campaigns launchedHealth officials in Somalia and Somaliland have undertaken separate efforts to restrict travel and public gatherings.Map of Somaliland.With almost nonexistent primary health services and no labs to test potential coronavirus samples, Somali officials have launched public awareness campaigns to confront the deadly pandemic.Vehicles mounted with loudspeakers have circulated in Mogadishu with basic information about the virus. The government has distributed leaflets advising people to wash their hands and practice social distancing.On Tuesday, Somalia’s federal government banned beachgoing and ordered closure of restaurants and bars. The previous day, the government ordered the closure of religious schools and urged the public to perform prayers at home. Last week, public schools and universities were closed.A suspension of all domestic flights went into effect at midnight Sunday. International flights were already suspended until April 2, but the government has given itself an option to extend that.After confirmation of the two cases in Somaliland, authorities were still awaiting the results of at least 14 other cases under investigation, seven in the semiautonomous Puntland region and the rest in Mogadishu.“We have not yet seen any locally transmitted cases, but this situation may change in the future,” Mamunur Rahman Malik, the World Health Organization’s representative and head of mission for Somalia, said in an email to VOA Somali.Just before the news of the two new cases, health officials celebrated the recovery of the first patient to test positive on March 16.Malik said the person had shown no symptoms throughout the period and was tested negative on two consecutive samples taken 48 hours apart.ChallengesSince Somalia does not have a laboratory, samples are taken to a WHO-certified center in neighboring Kenya, which local health professionals said was a huge challenge.The country has just ordered three machines that can conduct these tests, which are expected to arrive in two to three weeks, Health Minister Fawziya Abikar said.“Somalia is in a very delicate situation. It has come from longtime civil unrest and political instability. … The health system is fragile,” said Abikar, who has been the face of the government’s efforts in preparing for COVID-19.She pointed out that even before the coronavirus, many Somalis had other challenging health problems.“Already, Somalia is a country where mothers and children die, maternal mortality is very high, child and antenatal mortality is very high, TB [tuberculosis] is prevalent, malaria also,” she said during a VOA Somali interview.“God forbid, but if we have this pandemic virus, it will be a huge drastic public health problem for the Somali people. The hospitals are not adequate to contain, let us not talk about the ICU units and high-dependency units. Even oxygen is a problem for the time being,” she said.The Somali government allocated just $5 million for fighting the virus. Most of the nearly $460 million budget for this year will go to security, as the government rebuilds the army and fights the al-Shabab militant group.Al-Shabab has banned aid agencies from working in their area of control, mainly in the countryside, a matter that could complicate outreach and health awareness campaigns.This week, al-Shabab commented on the pandemic, calling for “caution” against the coronavirus and other infectious diseases. The group then accused what it called “crusader forces who invaded the country, and disbelieving countries that support them, AMISOM [the African Union Mission in Somalia],” of contributing to the spread.
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HRW: Ankara Denying Water to Syrian Kurds as Coronavirus Escalates
Turkey is being accused of “weaponizing” water against Syrian Kurds amid the coronavirus epidemic. Ankara is dismissing the accusation, however, as a “smear campaign.” U.S.-based Human Rights Watch warned Tuesday that “Turkish authorities’ failure to ensure adequate water supplies to Kurdish-held areas in northeast Syria is compromising humanitarian agencies’ ability to prepare and protect vulnerable communities in the COVID-19 pandemic.” The key Allouk water-pumping station is at the center of the controversy. HRW says that through March, the station worked only intermittently and now is closed again. Syrian forces backed by Ankara operate the water station that serves territory held by the Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, which is designated as terrorists by Ankara.In October, Syrian rebels backed by Turkish forces launched an offensive against the YPG, taking control of a large swathe of territory. Ankara claims the Kurdish militia is affiliated with the PKK, which is fighting a decade’s long insurgency inside Turkey for greater minority rights. A Syrian girl fills a jug with water in Washukanni camp, on Dec. 16, 2019, which was recently established on the outskirts of Hasakeh city for people displaced from the northeastern Syrian town of Ras Al-Ain.”Turkey and Turkish-backed factions are in control of the area where the Allouk pumping station is. Before they took control, we hadn’t seen any interruption in the water supply,” said Sara Kayyali, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Syria. “What we’ve seen by the closure of the pumping station is an attempt to weaponize, to use water as a weapon to get more out of the Syrian Kurdish lead authority, as well as the Syrian authorities,” said Kayyali. HRW warns the pumping station is of critical importance to hundreds of thousands of people. “The water pumping station supplies clean drinking water to the most vulnerable refugee camps in the region,” said Kayyali. “There are tens of thousands of Syrians and foreigners who are already living in dire humanitarian conditions. If you stop pumping water to these regions and coronavirus comes in, it will become an absolute disaster,” she said. “Fortunately, until now, we don’t have any corona cases, because we acted very quickly, by closing all the borders,” said Dr. Raperin Hasan, co-chair of regional Health Authority in Jazira, an autonomous region of northern and eastern Syria. But Hasan warns, with the region hosting several large refugee camps, the loss of the Allouk water station means they are still facing a humanitarian crisis. “We now have hundreds of thousand people living together closely without water. They have only a small quantity of water every three days,” said Hasan. “We are trying to bring water from other places by truck, but there is only a very small quantity. It’s not working, as there are so many people, and the water quality is not the same as if it comes piped in,” she said. “We already have a lot of diseases — diarrhea, stomach problems, and skin diseases,” she added. “But our biggest fear is the coronavirus. Because there is no water to wash their hands, and they have the same problem in Hasakah [a local city].” A woman carries jerry cans to fill them up with water at the Kurdish-run al-Hol camp for the displaced where families of Islamic State (IS) foreign fighters are held, in the al-Hasakeh governorate in northeastern Syria on Dec. 9, 2019.Personal hygiene, particularly regularly washing hands, according to experts, is one of the main ways of controlling the spread of the virus. Ankara is blaming Damascus for failing to provide adequate electricity for the pumping station. “The unstable electricity supply in the region affects the sustainment of water services provided by the Allouk water station,” according to a Turkish official speaking on the condition of anonymity. “The Assad regime should prioritize repair and maintenance of the electricity infrastructure in the region rather than initiating a joint smear campaign against Turkey with the terrorist organization PKK-YPG, its long-time partner.” HRW’s Kayyali disputes Ankara’s explanation. “It’s not that there’s not enough electricity; it’s just they [Ankara] want the electricity for rest of the region they control,” she added. “Turkey had never used water as a weapon in the region, even when the Syrian regime was hosting the terrorist leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci, of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. “But if Ankara was to use water to squeeze the Syrian Kurds, that would be against international law and will create major problems for Turkey internationally,” he said. “I think the situation is more likely a failure of all sides to work together, Damascus, Russia, Syrian Kurds, and Turkey. They all need to sit down talk together to resolve this, as it’s the most vulnerable who are suffering,” Bagci added. Hasan concurs, warning that the water crisis comes as they are engaged in a desperate struggle to prepare for combating the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our health care system is very, very weak. We don’t have supplies. We don’t have major hospitals. It’s a very big problem. We don’t have any international support. We don’t even have masks,” said Hasan. “The coronavirus represents a threat to all of us,” said Kayyali. “It will be very easy to see how a failure to respond in one part of Syria will defiantly lead to consequences in areas of Syria controlled by other groups, but also in Turkey itself given it’s a neighboring country. It’s very clear, if we don’t fight coronavirus collectively and do what we can, we are all going to suffer the consequences.”
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