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A Year of Pandemic: In Middle East, Coronavirus Compounds Conflict

Henry Ridgwell

   LONDON - It's almost a year since the World Health Organization
   declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic on March 11, 2020.
   The Middle East was one of the first regions to be hit outside China,
   and the pandemic has exacerbated existing crises caused by conflict and
   forced migration.

   Iran recorded its first coronavirus infections in February 2020, one of
   the first outbreaks outside Wuhan. Within days it had become a global
   epicenter as hospitals filled with patients.

   Iranian government figures suggest 60,000 people have died since the
   outbreak began but the true number is likely far higher, says Behnam
   Ben Taleblu of the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of
   Democracies, a nonprofit focusing on foreign policy and security. He
   believes early mistakes by the government cost lives.

   "You saw them first deny it, then downplay it," Taleblu told VOA. "The
   challenge is that the health and welfare of its own people is not
   priority No. 1. And when you're facing a global pandemic, that means
   your citizens are going to bear the brunt of it."

   Iran insists it did all it could to contain the outbreak and denied
   accusations that it covered up the true number of deaths. By the time
   the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic on March 11,
   the virus had spread across the Middle East.

   In Yemen and Syria, countries racked by deep-rooted conflicts, the
   pandemic compounded the pressure on fragile health systems. In May, the
   United Nations warned that the Yemeni health system, which was already
   severely weakened by years of fighting, had essentially collapsed.
   FILE - Students wear face masks to help curb the spread of the
   coronavirus as they take a final-term school exam at a public school in
   Sanaa, Yemen, Aug. 15, 2020.

   The festival of Eid al-Fitr in May, the end of Ramadan, was marked with
   somber, socially distanced worship across the Muslim world.

   In Lebanon, economic and political crises compounded by the pandemic
   and exacerbated by the August explosion in Beirut port, pushed the
   country to the brink.

   By September there were worsening outbreaks in several refugee camps in
   Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

   As third waves of the pandemic gripped Europe, the United States and
   Latin America at the end of 2020, the Middle East fared better than the
   World Health Organization had feared -- but it warns the situation
   remains precarious.

   "Around 6 million people in the region caught the virus" since the
   beginning of the pandemic, said Ahmed Al-Mandhari, the World Health
   Organization's Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, in a
   press conference last month.

   "Unfortunately, around 140,000 people died," he added. "In our region,
   where people and healthcare institutions suffer constantly with war,
   natural disasters and diseases, this virus has demanded all our
   efforts."

   That effort is now being directed toward vaccinations. Israel has
   rolled out the fastest mass vaccination program in the world as over
   half the population has received a first dose. The country began
   gradually lifting its coronavirus lockdown measures last month, with
   services such as hair salons and gyms allowed to reopen. Early data
   suggests the vaccination program is helping to curb the spread of the
   virus.

   Dr. Peter Drobac, a global health expert at the University of Oxford,
   says early planning was key. "No. 1, they did some things right in
   terms of purchasing agreements and getting early access to the
   vaccines," Drobac told VOA. "But really this is all about operations
   and organization."

   Vaccination rates vary sharply across the Middle East. The
   Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza lag far behind Israel. The United
   Nations says Israel should provide vaccines under international law;
   the Israeli government says healthcare is the responsibility of the
   Palestinian Authority, under the 1993 Oslo Accords.

   Many countries in the region are using Chinese and Russian-made
   vaccines and are hoping to benefit from the global COVAX program which
   provides vaccines to low- and middle-income nations. Deliveries of the
   AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccine under the program began last month.

   Iran remains the worst-hit country in the region. Last month Iranian
   President Hassan Rouhani called for stricter border controls, warning
   that another wave of the pandemic could hit the country. "More
   attention must be paid to foreign entries, especially from countries
   infected with new variants of the virus," Rouhani said Feb. 13 in a
   meeting of the national anti-COVID-19 headquarters in Tehran.

   The World Health Organization is urging countries to remain vigilant,
   as the new virus mutations could be more infectious and resistant to
   vaccines.