Pakistan: Islamabad: As an active member of the COVID-19 Risk Communication and Community Engagement Task Force, the Office helped amplify government-approved messages on the prevention and response to the coronavirus among refugees.

Pakistan: Islamabad: UNHCR dispatched core relief items in support of the Government of Pakistan’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The relief items include medical supplies and sanitation products such as sanitary clothes, soap and disinfectants.

Pakistan: Islamabad: UNHCR donated five fully equipped ambulances to the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The ambulances will be deployed to the districts of Haripur, Kohat, Mardan, Peshawar and Swabi.

Pakistan: Islamabad: UNHCR’s global coronavirus emergency appeal amounted to $255 million as of 31 March 2020. Of this amount, the requirements for Pakistan come to $5.7 million.

Following the declaration of a global pandemic by WHO on 11 March 2020, UNHCR declared a Global Level 2 Emergency for the COVID-19 situation on 25 March 2020, activating emergency procurement procedures, simplified partner selection processes and giving country teams maximum flexibility in providing assistance.

While UNHCR is preparing and scaling-up its readiness and response in all countries with persons of concern (PoC), particular attention is given to situations where the pandemic is ‘an emergency on top of an emergency’; among them Bangladesh, DRC, Iraq, the Sahel, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and the Venezuela situation.

At the start of the lockdown, more than 550 vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers hosted in shelters and urban areas of Medenine, Zarzis, Sfax and Tataouine received food vouchers until the end of March, in order to avoid further gatherings.

Six persons detained in the Al Wardia Reception and Orientation Center were able to access asylum procedures, be released and registered, thanks to the collaboration between UNHCR and the Direction of Borders and Foreigners (DFE).

UNHCR in SUDAN COVID 19 PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE: To protect refugees and IDPs as well as their hosts in Sudan from COVID-19, UNHCR and partners have rolled out a massive prevention, preparedness and response programme. The Agency joined WHO and UNICEF in spreading awareness by translating posters in refugee languages, by briefing volunteers and IDP leaders, through leaflets and 15,000 text messages sent to urban refugees in Khartoum. In addition, in the first weeks after the first known case of corona virus in Sudan, UNHCR and partners distributed soap to over 260,000 people and established a surveillance system in refugee camps for immediate isolation of potential cases, reporting to the health authorities and subsequent testing.

UNHCR and COR SECURE THE RELEASE OF DETAINED REFUGEES AMID COVID 19 FEARS: To reduce the risk of infection in overcrowded detention sites, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, together with the government’s Commissioner for Refugees (COR) achieved the release from immigration detention in the Sudanese capital Khartoum of Eritrean asylum-seekers for proper registration. They had been in detention for administrative reasons.