A woman living in the northern Jordanian city of Irbid who had fled northern Iraq became the first United Nations registered refugee to receive the COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday. Before the pandemic, Canada committed $2.1 billion in security, humanitarian and development funds to help Jordan and neighbouring Lebanon cope with the massive influx of refugees they face due to the crises in Syria and Iraq. "If you want to defeat the pandemic, you have to include refugees in the vaccine rollout around the world," she said. "That's sort of the bigger context and what we're doing is calling on all governments, Canada included, to ensure that refugees and other displaced populations are included." "COVID has essentially been an emergency on top of an emergency for refugees around the world," said Jamous Imseis.

Source: Ethiopian News January 15, 2021 19:06 UTC