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UNHCR set up quarantine centre for Congolese refugees in Angola

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has set up a quarantine centre for covid-19 in the settlement of Lóvua, where more than 6,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo) are staying.

: Reuters
Reuters  

According to the head of UNHCR's External Relations Area in Angola, Juliana Ghazi, although no suspicious cases of the new coronavirus have been reported, a quarantine centre has been set up and community workers are being trained to screen cases.

"We are establishing even more measures to prevent covid-19 from reaching the settlement, we don't have any cases registered yet and we hope it will continue," she added.

Juliana Ghazi, who was speaking this Thursday in statements to the Lusa agency, stressed that clinics in the Lóvua camp in Lunda Norte province have been expanded to screen cases.

The UNHCR has the support of partners, namely Médecins du Monde, to provide training for community workers on covid-19, regarding the prevention and screening process for respiratory diseases.

"We have clinics that operate daily in the settlement, so we have been doing screening training, [so that] if any refugees need any help and have any respiratory disease [know] how to identify cases. We also have built a quarantine clinic for any refugee and family member who is suspected of having coronavirus," she said.

Juliana Ghazi said an ambulance is being provided for any need for referral to Dundo, the capital of Lunda Norte, or Luanda, as well as protective material such as masks and gloves.

"We had some at the clinic, but not enough to attend to this emergency, we are asking more, both local partners and UN agencies, to get it to the settlement as soon as possible," she said.

In Luanda province, where nearly 45,000 refugees (30,000) and asylum seekers (15,000) are living, there is also a process of awareness raising.

"We don't only have refugees in Lunda Norte, we also have them in urban areas. Here in Luanda we have been raising awareness with refugees in the centres we serve in Viana and Bairro Popular, for the prevention of covid-19, for hand washing and all the preventive measures to avoid contamination," he said.

Juliana Ghazi admitted that in Luanda "it is a little more difficult" to raise awareness, because there are also refugees in areas outside the organization's control.

"But we are always campaigning and now even more to get relevant information to the refugees," she said.

In Luanda, he also said, sessions were held with partners, led by experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), in which information material was given to the refugees.

"We also built new water points, with buckets of tap, soap, so that they are always washing their hands and preventing themselves," Juliana Ghazi said.

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