1/ No one knows how many people catch COVID in any one area. Estimates have suggested that at least 25-50% of a population will. That’s 0.5-1m people in Gaza. 20% of those will have to be hospitalized; 100-200K. Gaza’s hospitals have 2,600 beds.
2/ The two cases, both returning from Pakistan, were immediately sent into quarantine by the Rafah border. There is an effort to identify everyone they’ve been in touch with so those individuals can also be quarantined.
3/ Until yesterday, Palestinians in Gaza have been watching events unfold in the world around them with a deep sense of foreboding, given the knowledge that an outbreak in Gaza would be devastating.
4/ In big cities, people have been increasingly vigilant, particularly as news trickled in from Italy and Spain. In other places, life continued more or less as normal. In the Shatti camp, yesterday, people were out on the street, funerals were packed, markets were full.
5/ People stocked up on sanitizers where they can afford them. Reports have reached me that people were going to pharmacies asking for single pills of Paracetamol/Panadol. Not one pack; one pill. Those were all they could afford (some were also asking for single Viagra pills…).
6/ Hamas’s government, for the most part has focused on preventing the entry of people in an effort to uphold Gaza’s isolation. It has focused on building up areas for quarantine, including by preparing schools and hospitals to house patients.
7/ Many of these sites are located in densely populated urban areas (as is all of Gaza), suggesting that the risk of contagion remains high. Last night exacerbated fears. Firefighter trucks and the security services were roaming the streets calling on people to stay at home.
8/ The nightmare is that, even if there are sufficient quarantine areas, there is a severe shortage of ICU beds, ventilators and medical equipment. The health sector itself has been crippled by 14 years of blockade and by Israeli military assaults.
9/ (In the summer of 2014 alone, Israel attacked 17 hospitals, 56 primary healthcare centers and 45 ambulances). theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
10/ UNRWA, the other major service provider in the strip, cannot offer that kind of healthcare. Its clinics are all outpatient clinics.
11/ Hamas has asked for the blockade to be lifted off the Gaza Strip for medical equipment and supplies and to ensure the entry of Qatari money to soften, as much as possible, the economic collapse that is accompanying this virus.
12/ It has reportedly threatened to escalate rocket fire if Israel fails to act rapidly. Thousands of Israelis running to shelters would jeopardize Israel’s own containment efforts.
13/ There is a responsibility to ensure that Pals in Gaza - like other densely populated, imprisoned and impoverished populations - have enough supplies to manage the outbreak’s curve. Otherwise, everyone will witness how COVID can ravage a population if left to its own devices.
