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This is a summary of what UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo, to whom this can be attributed, said at today’s press convention at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
Community refugee networks are associated with COVID-19 cases in Ecuador, as a component of a Community Epidemiological Surveillance System (CESS) developed through UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency.
The formula is helping to perform early detection and referral to the remedy of COVID-19 cases among the refugee population of the country. Since the publication of the formula a month ago, more than 250 suspected cases have been referred to national physical fitness authorities.
Although Ecuador grants access to public fitness facilities to all, regardless of nationality or resident status, access is not quick in practice. Some refugees are housed in remote and remote spaces in the country with limited facilities, while others may not know their rights or worry about being fined for their abnormal situation.
This state-of-the-art network fitness reference strategy is based on the UNHCR humanitarian network and pre-existing refugee networks to identify COVID-19 cases among refugee and migrant communities.
The network includes partners, network organizations and civil society, complementing the government’s existing epidemiological surveillance formula for greater success in refugees and migrants, who have a tendency to move frequently within the country.
Across the country, six network organizations targeting refugees and migrants have received training through UNHCR in epidemiological surveillance.
Through hotlines, home visits and the delivery of humanitarian aid, UNHCR and 50 other humanitarian and network organizations monitor and identify suspected cases of COVID-19 between refugees and migrants and their local host communities.
Once suspicious cases are known through the network focal point, the data is stored in a personal online database and an alert is sent to public fitness facilities to monitor the case and provide a clinical remedy or advice, if necessary.
To date, more than 113,000 cases of COVID have been reported among Ecuador’s 17 million inhabitants. Official figures show more than 500 cases of COVID among refugees and migrants in the country.
Beyond the identity of symptoms, the networked epidemiological surveillance formula also collects vital information. Keep in mind that referrals should have biosecurity equipment, live in overcrowded housing, and have other desires or similar situations that may require additional medical care, such as pregnant women, the elderly, and others with chronic illnesses. This is essential to enable humanitarian organizations to provide personalized assistance.
UNHCR has also introduced networked fitness projects in Latin America, adding Colombia, Peru, Chile and Costa Rica.
Ecuador is home to some 70,000 identified refugees, most of them from Colombia, as well as some 400,000 refugees and migrants from Venezuela.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic now leave many others in extreme conditions, with no source of income, at risk of becoming homeless and limited to social and fitness services.
Data from the most recent joint wish research conducted through the Ecuadorian Working Group on Refugees and Migrants, a component of Venezuela’s Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants (R4V), show that 20% of Venezuelans surveyed with medical disorders may simply not receive physical care. and 8 out of 10 families surveyed were unemployed.
UNHCR is calling for foreign refugee host countries, severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, to help respond to this emergency inclusively.
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© UNHCR 2001-2020
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