The Palestinian camps are untouched by corona virus at least till now. Coincidence and good luck may be the reason of not registering any corona case yet in the most crowded gatherings of Lebanon. UNRWA announced that the lab tests which were made to three Palestinian cases – from Mieh W Mieh, Ain El-Hilweh and Ghazieh area – showed that they are free of Corona confirming that there are no infections among the Palestinian refugees. However, the Palestinians wait for the beginning of implementing the emergency plan to face the epidemic and the procedures of prevention and protection of UNRWA in coordination with the PRCS, the Palestinian Civil Defense and the domestic Palestinian NGOs.
The Palestinian camps fell from the emergency plan which was announced by the Ministry of Health to face Corona considering that the responsibility of prevention and treatment – in case infections appeared – falls on UNRWA which is in charge of the refugees’ affairs including their recovery. UNRWA was committed to the resolution of the Ministry of Education. So, it closed all of its schools in the camps and gatherings and organized awareness seminars and propagated messages through social media and WhatsApp.
The absence of any infection among the Palestinian refugees didn’t reassure the Palestinian refugees till now, because most of them are unable to buy the medical sterilization materials. Add to this that they are unable to move – even temporarily – outside the camp and this is because of the high cost of living on one hand and also because "the outside” became infectious on the other hand. In case, there is registration of any infection, it will move from one person to thousands due to population density, overcrowding and the inability of the Palestinians of paying the treatment expenses.
Government confrontation plans didn’t include equipping hospitals inside the camps in the presence of Beirut Governmental Hospital complaints of its inability of receiving more infected people. The PRCS hospitals don’t have isolation rooms and even before the economic crisis and the spread of the virus started, they already suffered from equipment deficiency.