Mideast faces deadly second wave: WHO

dubai — As winter nears and coronavirus cases surge across the Middle East, the regional director for the World Health Organisation said on Thursday that the only way to avoid mass deaths is for countries to quickly tighten restrictions and enforce preventative measures.

In a press briefing from Cairo, Ahmed Al Mandhari, director of WHO’s eastern Mediterranean region, which comprises most of the Middle East, expressed concern that countries in the area were lowering their guard after tough lockdowns imposed earlier this year.

The fundamentals of pandemic response, from social distancing to mask wearing, “are still not being fully practised in our region”, he said, adding that the result is apparent throughout the region’s crowded hospitals.

Noting that the virus had sickened over 3.6 million people and killed more than 76,000 in the region over the past nine months, Al Mandhari warned “the lives of as many people — if not more — are at stake”, urging action to “prevent this tragic premonition from becoming a reality”. More than 60 per cent of all new infections in the past week were reported from Iran, Jordan and Morocco, he said. Cases are also up in Pakistan and Lebanon. Jordan, Tunisia and Lebanon have reported the biggest single-day death spikes from the region.

Worst off in the region has been Iran, where infections have soared in recent months, filling up hospitals and driving up the death toll. Iran shattered its single-day death toll six times in the last two weeks, bringing the total count of fatalities past 43,400. —