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© UNICEF/Frank Dejongh Nurses are wearing masks and gloves to protect against the Coronavirus, in the health center of Port Bouet, a suburb of Abidjan, in the South of Côte d'Ivoire.         12 May 2020 Health As the coronavirus outbreak enters its fifth month, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that the health crisis is “quickly becoming a child rights crisis”, requesting $1.6 billion to support its humanitarian response for children impacted by the pandemic. And  without urgent action , a further 6,000 under-fives could die each day. With a dramatic increase in the costs of supplies, shipment and care, the agency appeal is up from a $651.6 million request made in late March – reflecting the devastating socioeconomic consequences of the disease and families’ rising needs. Henrietta H. Fore ✔ @unicefchief The # COVID19 pandemic is a health crisis which is quickly becoming a child rights crisis. @ UNICEF is appealing for US$1.6 billion to help us respond to the crisis, recover f

© UNICEF/Karel Prinsloo A mother holds her 3-month-old baby as he receives a vaccination against measles at a health centre in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.         31 March 2020 Health The looming threat of the new coronavirus disease COVID-19 is just the latest challenge to the beleaguered health care system in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is struggling with deadly measles and cholera epidemics that have killed thousands of children over the past year, the UN children’s fund ( UNICEF ) said on Tuesday. As the DRC has also been battling an Ebola outbreak in the volatile eastern region,  UNICEF  fears mounting cases of  COVID-19  will further strain the public health system in a country that is among the most at risk in Africa. “ Coronavirus  will most likely divert the available national health capacity and resources, and leave millions of children affected by measles, malaria, polio and many other killer diseases,” said UNICEF Representative Edoua

Release inmates in Yemen to avert nationwide coronavirus outbreak, experts urge UNICEF/Rajat Madhok A prison cell.         30 March 2020 Health An international panel of human rights experts called today for the immediate release of political prisoners and detainees in war-ravaged Yemen to help avert a nationwide outbreak of COVID-19. Despite calls from the UN Secretary-General and others for a global ceasefire during the pandemic, fighting has continued between pro-Government forces and Houthi rebels in recent days. In a statement, the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen, said prisoners and detainees in Yemen are particularly vulnerable – and at high risk of death - if the novel  coronavirus  emerges in overcrowded prisons and other detention facilities. Conditions in such places are “appalling,” it said, adding that the health system in Yemen is on the brink of collapse and that prisoners must cope with a lack of adequate food and minimum standards of hygiene

UNICEF sounds alarm over water cuts in Syria as efforts ramp up to prevent COVID-19 spread © UNICEF/Masoud Hasan Two young children wait to collect water trucked in by UNICEF from other areas of the Middle East to Tal Tamer, Syria. (16 October 2019)         23 March 2020 Humanitarian Aid The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and its relief partners in  Syria  are warning that water disruptions in the country’s war-battered north-east could exacerbate risks posed by the global coronavirus pandemic.  In statement from Damascus,  Fran Equiza ,  UNICEF  Representative in Syria,  said  on Monday that the water supply from the Allouk station – the main source of water for some 460,000 people – has been interrupted It is the latest in a series of pumping disruptions over the past weeks, he said. “The interruption of water supply during the current efforts to curb the spread of  coronavirus  disease puts children and families at unacc