Mozambique on Wednesday opened the largest treatment center for people infected with COVID-19 in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, which was said to face the challenges of overload caused by the displaced people fleeing from the armed conflicts in the region.
The information was announced in a statement on Wednesday by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which helped build the treatment center.
“People fleeing armed conflict in Mozambique are trading this life-threatening danger for the risk of infection by COVID-19 pandemic. The new treatment center will help the community respond to the health crisis, but these families cannot return until the fighting moves away from civilian homes,” said Raoul Bittel, the head of ICRC’s operations in the province’s capital Pemba, quoted in the statement.
The facility has an immediate capacity for 200 patients and can expand it to 400.
Most displaced people find shelter with relatives, which represents an additional burden for them and worsens the overcrowding conditions that favor the spread of the disease, since physical distance becomes impossible, the statement said.
The statement stresses that attacks in Cabo Delgado districts are likely to increase while humanitarian access declines.
