Lack of testing stokes fears in world’s refugee camps

There are over 70 million people worldwide who have been driven from their homes by war and unrest, with up to 10 million packed into refugee camps and informal settlements, and almost none have been tested for the coronavirus.

“Testing is in short supply even in New York and Norway, but it is non-existent in most of the countries in the (global) south for the people we try to help,” Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told The Associated Press.

His group recently conducted a review of all 30 countries where it operates and found virtually no testing before people became sick.

Refugees have already tested positive in Italy, Germany, Iran, Australia and Greece, where authorities said Tuesday that 150 people living in a quarantined hotel for asylum-seekers had contracted the coronavirus, and none displayed symptoms of COVID-19.

In Syria’s war-ravaged Idlib province, only one small health facility is equipped to receive suspected coronavirus cases. In Bangladesh, aid workers are racing to build isolation facilities in the world’s largest refugee camp. In two sprawling camps in Kenya, Somalis who survived decades of famine and war fear the worst is yet to come.

On Wednesday, a Palestinian woman from war-ravaged Syria became the first refugee living in a camp in Lebanon to test positive, sparking a round of testing by health officials to see if any other residents have been infected.