Ninety Lebanon peacekeepers contract coronavirus: UNIFIL

Ninety UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, a spokesman for the UNIFIL force said yesterday, the first reported cases of the illness.  The confirmed cases were transferred to a special UNIFIL facility equipped to deal with Covid-19 cases, UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said in a statement.  He said 88 of those infected belonged to the same contingent, but he did not specify the nationalities of the 90 peacekeepers. "We have undertaken robust contact tracing, and applied a thorough regime of testing and isolation" to prevent a larger outbreak, he said. Some 45 countries contribute peacekeepers to UNIFIL, which was set up in 1978 to patrol the border between Lebanon and Israel which are technically at war.

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