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COVID-19

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COVID-19

COVID-19 is a new viral disease that affects the respiratory system

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020.

As COVID-19 has spread, MSF teams are racing to respond to the pandemic in the more than 70 countries in which we run programmes, while opening projects in new countries as they become pandemic hotspots.

Our COVID-19 response focuses on three main priorities:

  • Supporting health authorities to provide care for patients with COVID-19 
  • Protecting people who are vulnerable and at risk 
  • Keeping essential medical services running
A photograph which has been edited to look like an illustration, showing Yotibel Moreno in the MSF COVID ward
Yotibel Moreno
Yotibel Moreno
Communications
COVID-19 in Venezuela: "This is no time for photos"
The mental health of patients, their families and frontline health staff has been a fundamental part of COVID-19-related projects run by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) across the world. For Yotibel Moreno, MSF communications officer in Venezuela, managing the pain caused by the virus became personal when Yotibel’s own uncle was admitted to MSF’s COVID-19 care unit in Caracas.
25 Aug 2021 / 7 minute read
Dr Khairil Musa
Khairil Musa
Doctor
Where the Light Enters: Reflections on the fight against COVID-19 in war-torn Yemen
As communities around the world continue to struggle against the pandemic, Dr Khairil Musa looks back to 2020, and his time working in a COVID-19 treatment centre during Yemen’s first wave.
29 Jul 2021 / 9 minute read
Santosh Choure
Health Promoter
COVID-19 in India: “We’re working to protect our community”
Health promoter Santosh Choure is in Mumbai, where MSF is working to help people in the city’s slums protect themselves from India's devastating COVID-19 surge
11 May 2021 / 5 minute read
Gautam Harigovind
Gautam Harigovind
Doctor
COVID-19 in India: "What’s happening now is an atrocity"
In India, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly, with devastating consequences. Gautam Harigovind is MSF's medical activities manager at a dedicated COVID-19 hospital in Mumbai. He shares his experience.
05 May 2021 / 4 minute read
Maryam Babangida
Maryam Babangida
Health Promoter
Anka, Nigeria: Our race against COVID-19
In a region already facing malnutrition and violence, Maryam and her team knew that an outbreak of COVID-19 could be devastating. They were determined they wouldn't let it happen. Maryam shares the story...
16 Apr 2021 / 5 minute read
Landscape
Alice Higginson
Health Promoter
Working with the Yezidi in the time of COVID-19: Part Three
Health promoter Alice has recently returned from an assignment in northern Iraq. In her final post, she takes us with her into the mountains, to find out more about local beliefs around COVID-19.
16 Mar 2021 / 5 minute read
Night sky
Alice Higginson
Health Promoter
Working with the Yezidi in the time of COVID-19: Part Two
Health promoter Alice Higginson has recently returned from assignment in Iraq. She shares a dispatch from quarantine...
09 Mar 2021 / 3 minute read
A screenshot from an MSF broadcast for R-vision
Elko Brummelman - MSF advocacy manager
Elko Brummelman
Humanitarian Affairs Advisor
Reaching thousands with a click: How the Rohingya helped guide COVID-19 awareness
With COVID-19 hitting the Rohingya refugee community hard, Elko Brummelman and his team knew they needed a new strategy in Malaysia. They wanted expert advice, and they knew just who to ask.
17 Dec 2020 / 7 minute read
A respirator mask
A respirator mask
I am the mask: Duty Day
The final part in our series showing the vital role of face masks in our response to COVID-19.
12 Nov 2020 / 5 minute read
An MSF driver
A respirator mask
A respirator mask
I am the mask – Adventure in Timegara, Pakistan
Part two of our series taking a very different perspective: the world of a respirator mask
12 Nov 2020 / 5 minute read
A respirator mask
A respirator mask
I am the mask: Who am I?
Today we're hearing from a different member of the team. Not one of our staff, but part of our equipment.
12 Nov 2020 / 3 minute read
Laura and members of the MSF team in Juba, South Sudan
Laura Wright
Laura Wright
Epidemiologist
COVID-19 in South Sudan: Do you leave, or do you stay?
Sweat, fear, perseverance. Epidemiologist Laura shares a fly-on-the-wall account of how a team more accustomed to malaria and malnutrition took on the pandemic.
01 Nov 2020 / 14 minute read

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Florian Lems/MSF
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