Roughly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, no massive outbreaks have been reported in refugee camps to date. The U.N. refugee agency, or UNHCR, "had been fearing -- and preparing for -- large outbreaks at refugee camps, which fortunately did not happen," spokeswoman Aikaterini Kitidi acknowledged in an email exchange with VOA. "There could be scenarios where it [COVID] actually has gone through the refugee camps at a high level" but symptoms weren't severe enough for the infected people to seek care. On behalf of UNHCR, Spiegel also is looking at COVID's impact on two Syrian refugee camps in Jordan: Za'atari, a northern site with nearly 80,000 residents, and Azraq, a northeastern site hosting 38,000. Spiegel said he's involved in additional studies of refugees and host communities in Bangladesh and in three African countries: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.

Source: The North Africa Journal December 30, 2021 08:30 UTC