UN: people in Gaza will ‘die on streets’ if Covid situation not controlled

Healthcare has collapsed in the enclave, with limited resources to treat a growing number of coronavirus patients

A view of closed school amid the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in Gaza City. EPA

Members of the clinical staff wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) care for a patient with coronavirus in the intensive care unit at the European Hospital, east of Rafah town, southern Gaza strip, 30 November 2020. The European Hospital, which has been classified as the Epidemiology Hospital since the start of the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip on 25 August 2020, has 334 infected cases under clinical care including 109 severe and critical cases. The production capacity of oxygen is 2,200 liters per minute, and there has become a large deficit after the increasing number of infections with Coronavirus. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

A Palestinian patient with coronavirus checks his mobile phone in the intensive care unit at the European Hospital, east of Rafah town, southern Gaza strip, 30 November 2020. The European Hospital, which has been classified as the Epidemiology Hospital since the start of the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip on 25 August 2020, has 334 infected cases under clinical care including 109 severe and critical cases. The production capacity of oxygen is 2,200 liters per minute, and there has become a large deficit after the increasing number of infections with Coronavirus. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

Members of the clinical staff wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) care for a patient with coronavirus in the intensive care unit at the European Hospital, east of Rafah town, southern Gaza strip, 30 November 2020. The European Hospital, which has been classified as the Epidemiology Hospital since the start of the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip on 25 August 2020, has 334 infected cases under clinical care including 109 severe and critical cases. The production capacity of oxygen is 2,200 liters per minute, and there has become a large deficit after the increasing number of infections with Coronavirus. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

Members of the clinical staff wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) care for a patient with coronavirus in the intensive care unit at the European Hospital, east of Rafah town, southern Gaza strip, 30 November 2020. The European Hospital, which has been classified as the Epidemiology Hospital since the start of the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip on 25 August 2020, has 334 infected cases under clinical care including 109 severe and critical cases. The production capacity of oxygen is 2,200 liters per minute, and there has become a large deficit after the increasing number of infections with Coronavirus. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

A Palestinian patient with coronavirus in the intensive care unit at the European Hospital, east of Rafah town, southern Gaza strip, 30 November 2020. The European Hospital, which has been classified as the Epidemiology Hospital since the start of the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip on 25 August 2020, has 334 infected cases under clinical care including 109 severe and critical cases. The production capacity of oxygen is 2,200 liters per minute, and there has become a large deficit after the increasing number of infections with Coronavirus. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

Members of the clinical staff wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) care for a patient with coronavirus in the intensive care unit at the European Hospital, east of Rafah town, southern Gaza strip, 30 November 2020. The European Hospital, which has been classified as the Epidemiology Hospital since the start of the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip on 25 August 2020, has 334 infected cases under clinical care including 109 severe and critical cases. The production capacity of oxygen is 2,200 liters per minute, and there has become a large deficit after the increasing number of infections with Coronavirus. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

Members of the clinical staff wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) care for a patient with coronavirus in the intensive care unit at the European Hospital, east of Rafah town, southern Gaza strip, 30 November 2020. The European Hospital, which has been classified as the Epidemiology Hospital since the start of the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip on 25 August 2020, has 334 infected cases under clinical care including 109 severe and critical cases. The production capacity of oxygen is 2,200 liters per minute, and there has become a large deficit after the increasing number of infections with Coronavirus. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

Palestinian patients with coronavirus in the intensive care unit at the European Hospital, east of Rafah town, southern Gaza strip, 30 November 2020. The European Hospital, which has been classified as the Epidemiology Hospital since the start of the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip on 25 August 2020, has 334 infected cases under clinical care including 109 severe and critical cases. The production capacity of oxygen is 2,200 liters per minute, and there has become a large deficit after the increasing number of infections with Coronavirus. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

Members of the clinical staff wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) care for a patient with coronavirus in the intensive care unit at the European Hospital, east of Rafah town, southern Gaza strip, 30 November 2020. The European Hospital, which has been classified as the Epidemiology Hospital since the start of the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip on 25 August 2020, has 334 infected cases under clinical care including 109 severe and critical cases. The production capacity of oxygen is 2,200 liters per minute, and there has become a large deficit after the increasing number of infections with Coronavirus. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

A Member of the clinical staff wearing Personal Protective Equipment rests outside the intensive care unit at the European Hospital, east of Rafah town, southern Gaza strip, 30 November 2020. The European Hospital, which has been classified as the Epidemiology Hospital since the start of the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip on 25 August 2020, has 334 infected cases under clinical care including 109 severe and critical cases. The production capacity of oxygen is 2,200 liters per minute, and there has become a large deficit after the increasing number of infections with Coronavirus. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

A Palestinian medical staff member wearing Personal Protective Equipment walks inside the European Hospital, east of Rafah town, southern Gaza strip, 30 November 2020. The European Hospital, which has been classified as the Epidemiology Hospital since the start of the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip on 25 August 2020, has 334 infected cases under clinical care including 109 severe and critical cases. The production capacity of oxygen is 2,200 liters per minute, and there has become a large deficit after the increasing number of infections with Coronavirus. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

“Prison-like” Gaza is two weeks away from hospitals reaching maximum capacity, which could lead to “people dying on the streets or at home”, the UN said on Thursday.

Cases have doubled over the past month in besieged Gaza, with over 580 daily cases and single-digit deaths as the number of infected people nears 30,000 and those killed by the illness crosses the 130 mark.

“If this trend doesn’t stop in two to three weeks, hospitals will have to turn people away,” said UNRWA director in Gaza Mattias Schmale. “People will die on the streets or at home if we don’t get this sorted,” he said at an online  seminar about Palestinian refugees held by the Middle East Institute.

“I realise some of the data may not sound very dramatic from a US perspective, but one has to keep in mind in Gaza, the prison-like conditions, being cut off from the world, is like a cruise ship and we know what happened ion cruise ships when there was an outbreak,” Mr Schmale said.

Part of the worsening situation lies in Gaza’s failing health sector, which Mr Schmale said has “collapsed totally”.

The provision of oxygen is one of the biggest challenges faced by the health sector, as power cuts make manual respiratory assistance necessary, further straining limited resources.

Authorities therefore suggested the idea of expanding the partial shutdown into a full lockdown.

“Half the population depends on daily paid work. These include taxi drivers and people selling items like cigarettes on the street and the worry is that if you lock the place down, there would be half a million people without income," Mr Schmale said.

The struggle to balance public health and the economy is just as delicate as in the rest of the world although in Gaza, the implications could be far greater.

“This is all happening on the 14th year of [Israeli] blockade with regards to Gaza bringing the population to its knees,” he said.