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LAST UPDATE | 15 Feb 2023
THE FOCUS HAS turned to caring for survivors as hundreds of thousands have been left homeless following the Turkey-Syria earthquake.
Here are the key updates on the ongoing response to the disaster:
A caravan of 11 United Nations trucks today entered Syria through the re-opened Bab al-Salama border point, after Damascus agreed to let the world body use the crossing for aid.
Before the earthquake struck, almost all the crucial humanitarian aid for the more than four million people living in rebel-controlled areas of northwest Syria was being delivered through just one crossing.
The trucks were loaded with essential humanitarian assistance, including shelter materials, mattresses, blankets and carpets, Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), told AFP.
A two months old baby was rescued from the rubble in Turkey 128 hours after the earthquake. pic.twitter.com/4fnOzOqsGu
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) February 11, 2023
A UN delegation also travelled from Turkey into the rebel-held area for the first time since the quake on an fact-finding mission.
Activists and emergency teams locally have decried the UN’s slow response to the quake in rebel-held areas, contrasting it with the planeloads of humanitarian aid that have been delivered to government-controlled airports.
“I don’t want to sit here and give excuses, but I wanted to share that we are all collectively in the same place,” Sanjana Quazi, who heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Turkey, told reporters in the rebel-held town of Sarmada.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called the quake the worst natural disaster to happen in Europe in 100 years.
“We are witnessing the worst natural disaster in the WHO European region for a century and we are still learning about its magnitude,” Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said today.
Kluge also said the health body had “initiated the largest deployment of emergency medical teams” in the 75-year history of the WHO European region.
“22 emergency medical teams have arrived in Turkey so far,” Kluge noted, adding they would integrate into “Turkey’s ongoing health response”.
The devastating earthquakes in Türkiye & Syria have impacted families already living in vulnerable situations.@WFP is appealing for US$77 million to provide urgent food assistance to nearly 900,000 affected people. https://t.co/nfnsBTzXy2
— United Nations (@UN) February 13, 2023
pic.twitter.com/k6DzzdIuLP
The UN also launched an appeal for $397 million to cover three months of “life-saving relief” for victims in Syria and said it was close to a similar plan for Turkey.
“Millions of people across the region are struggling for survival, homeless and in freezing temperatures,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
Fears have grown for survivors on both sides of the border, with the UN saying more than seven million children have been negatively impacted between Syria and Turkey, and noting fears that “many thousands” more had died.
“It is tragically clear that numbers will continue to grow,” said James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, adding that the final toll would be “mind-boggling”.
Following the disaster, residents faced the hard realities of surviving in cities turned to ruin in the middle of the winter freeze.
In Turkey’s Kahramanmaras, huge crowds depended on a single toilet that still functioned in a central mosque.
“There are no toilets, the toilets should be set up in tents,” Husne Duz, 53, who has lived with thousands of others in a tent city for the past week.
“I walk five kilometres every day to come here for a toilet. We cannot find any other place,” Erdal Lale, 44, told AFP.
The acrid smell of smoke from hundreds of fires lit to keep away the cold permeated much of Turkey’s disaster zone.
“We need to take showers. There is a need for washing machines for clothes,” Duz said.
The White Helmets volunteers continue their tours of shelters for #earthquake victims and survivors in the NW #Syria to provide health & psychological care to civilians and assess needs in light of the difficult humanitarian conditions and low temperatures. pic.twitter.com/wX7NT5obZl
— The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) February 13, 2023
In the devastated Turkish city of Antakya, clean-up teams have been shifting rubble and putting up basic toilets as the telephone network started to come back in parts of the town, an AFP reporter said.
And a week after the 6 February quake toppled buildings across the region, people were still being found alive under the rubble.
In the late afternoon, a middle-aged woman was pulled from the debris and put into an ambulance, according to an AFP team on the ground.
Doctors at the local field hospital were trying to save people who emerged after being buried for days.
“It’s a miracle to find a patient still alive under the rubble,” doctor Yilmaz Aydin told AFP.
“From now on, the survivors are likely to be in a more critical condition. The majority of them will need life-saving treatment,” said Aydin.
One was 25-year-old Syrian woman Abir, who spent 180 hours trapped under the rubble.
“Her heart stopped two times but we managed to bring her back,” said doctor Nihat Mujdat Hokenek.
The confirmed death toll from the quake stands at over 40,000.
The count has barely changed in Syria for several days and is expected to rise.
Minister Foley is saying schools are a safe place. What a joke.
I work in a school and we are doing the best we can on a shoestring.
We have been supplied with basic masks, visors and hand sanitiser and we have to ask and sign for them every time we need to replenish.
If this is what they call safe and say is fighting Covid then how come this high grade Covid fighting system hasn’t been rolled out in all those office blocks that are still empty.
Every single school is a Petri dish for Covid. No exceptions. They are not safe and it’s not because the staff and children aren’t doing their best.
@2thFairy: How many Covid cases in your school ? If none, or only 1 or 2 with no cluster, then isn’t the Minister correct at least in relation to your school ?
@Tommy Roche: a school not to far from my house had 5 cases this week. So what’s your point
@2thFairy: go on the covid payment so if you don’t want to be there
@Macca Attack: it was always said, they’re is going to be cases in schools
@Tommy Roche: there’s plenty of examples…. there’s 10 cases in maynooth community college and post primary. 5 students, 5 staff. The fact its not being talked about does tmean the schools are all grand and fine.
@Tommy Roche: we’ve had at least 12 cases that I know of. That’s staff and children. We aren’t informed of any of them. We find out by default and we can’t enquire about the circumstances.
@Mick Scanlan: I want the schools to stay open. I want to be in work. My point is that it’s not true that it’s safe. We have been little guidance and scant PPE. The conditions are laughable.
@2thFairy: How many confirmed cases?
@2thFairy: She said that schools are not ‘amplification settings’. She did NOT say they were ‘safe’. Of all the cases mentioned here, how many were transmitted within the school setting?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: 12 cases. Why so sceptical? That’s 12 cases I know of. There are many children absent so there could be more.
She did say they were safe. It’s in an earlier article. You seem to be picking at points here.
Trust me. Schools are full of children who are carrying around this virus. We have very little armoury to put up any kind of an effective defence. My mask has to last me a couple of days. I was given a pocket sized hand sanitiser. We have Aldi disinfectant spray to clean the tables. The school have to shop for all this stuff ourselves. It’s a joke.
@Tommy Roche: In your school? that’s the joke. it’s the clusters from all of the people going to their local shops,takeaways where you have to navigate the gangs of teenagers to even get to the door,never mind the ones who then go home, and then meet up with other friends from other schools, then meet up with friends after school. None of these are tracked or even trackable, because guess what? teenagers lie. “I hope you where not hanging around with your friends today as you know that’s dangerous now? yes mummy”
I find this very hard to believe. I have a lot of teacher friends and there are cases all over the place in schools. None being reported, however.
@PaleoIreland: that’s true it’s rampant but just ignored. Official documents from schools and HSE posted on Facebook daily
@Mick Scanlan: You sounds like you are in school yourself with some of your comments, a primary school student judging by your comments.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but I just do not believe this. I have friends with children who have contracted Covid from their kids whose classes were sent home because of covid. The numbers have shot up since schools are back. But they just will not shut them.
@a: nobody in a school is considered a close contact. This is purely to make sure schools don’t show up as hotspots. If 3 lads in the same class get it, the class is quietly sent home and the fact that they were in the same class is never flagged. Its happening all over the country.
But they are a breeding ground for other colds and flu which will end up using up all the testing resources… I’ve already gotten a cold and ended up getting tested and I picked it up from my kids who picked it up in school… And it’s only October
That’s not what my 15 year old daughter says. She says in the classroom there are some safety measures in place (depending on the teacher) but outside of the classroom it’s a complete free-for-all and the teachers turn a blind eye on the whole.
She thinks that for the Government to bluntly say it’s not spreading in schools is a complete lie when all evidence is to the contrary.
An early lesson for her politics.
@Shakka1244: Would just like to add that she says teachers do their best but it’s impossible for them.
@Shakka1244: I’m glad you added that we really do.
@Shakka1244: My daughter has said this too about her own school and I’ve seen it myself when I collect the 2 youngest from the primary school. I think it’s coming from the secondary schools mainly.
@Michelle J. Ni Dhubhlaiocht: teachers are doing our best with zero support.
If schools aren’t mass tested then this evidence will never exist since most young children are asymptomatic. It’s infuriating hearing them peddle this line over and over.
They are making up as they go along. Why didn’t they hold the leaving cert so when cases were down.
The virus spreads among all humans young and old. Get on a Luas at school start and finish times and see the risk. 15 allowed in pubs and restaurants outdoors but 300 on a Luas inside at peak. The doctors and scientists need come back to earth to the real world and stop doing what the books say.
Let them all Pass it to each other sur! Covid doesn’t enter school gates lads
Is she for real!!!
There’s no covid because they aren’t testing kids
@Liam Morgan: kids are fast tracked for test results so you are totally incorrect
@Niamh Hayes: no they are not and no he is not …kids are only tested if they show symptoms and as every other government department tells us 99 percent of kids are asymptomatic …literally walking petri dishes …get your facts right
6000 tested out of how many pupils/schools? Theres no way of knowing how many are infected without mass asymptomatic testing, fact is schools are being used as creches, secondary & third level should defo be closed afterall it’s where the virus first spread people have short memories
@SaveTheTrees: so we need to close the crehes ,is that your point .I don’t understand this schools are crehes argument cropping up .I don’t think teachers would accept the crehe payscale because they are not babysitters.
Babysitting not teaching
@Smokeycarroll: I presume you are not a teacher .Schools are the most important thing in any community in Ireland .
@Niamh Hayes: they are but when you shackle the teachers they can not teach simple stuff
One case linked to Pubs and they shut them all.
@Adam O’Sullivan: one……hahahahaha. go back to sleep
Have a look at the page below and see how many cases are being reported in schools every day
https://www.facebook.com/groups/600905740607906/?ref=share
This is stuff like chemical Ali from Baghdad.how can she say things are grand
Ahh come on! A minister wouldn’t stretch the truth??? Would she??
Keep the schools open. Did anyone read the article before saying they are causing increased transmission? Stop spreading fake news. Follow the science.
@Fionn Darland: errrrrrr….. because the schools were closed …!!!! The numbers came down to a manageable number for the hospitals then the schools opened up again and the numbers have surged upwards….!!! It’s very easy to see the pattern and timeline.
@2thFairy: errrrrrrrr……. Correlation does not imply causation.
I completely agree it isn’t spreading much within schools but once the kids are released en masse into the community they’re gathering in large mixed class groups outside take-aways and that’s where it’s spreading
@Lorraine Mac Rory: oh right so they spread it outside school but not inside!!! Like wtf, sure lets all go to school then and sure that will fix it !
Presume normas eyes were spat in in her job and norma is frequently bitten thus rendering ppe completely useless keeps schools open but dont blatantly lie about the safety.
@Lisa Quinn: *.keep
All available evidence? Show as the data and source, give us access to the raw data!
Until then, I call BS… no one is house partying that much!
The Cabinet has agreed a ban on all household visits from midnight tomorrow, for four weeks, except on compassionate grounds and for essential reasons, such as childcare.
This ban on visits includes homes and gardens, but up to six people from two households can meet in other outdoor settings while maintaining physical distancing as part of the enhanced Level 3.
But hey 800 in a secondary school no problem!
Schools mass testing = testing of those who don’t necessarily have symptoms = lower positive test results. Community testing = testing those who present with symptoms = higher positive test results.
First we were told that the young are less affected than the old… that bit is generally true.
Later on some (The Donald & others) pushed this further and claimed children are immune.
Now we are told they don’t even spread it.
I’m wondering how long it will take before they start claiming that having kids in school actually protects YOU from covid…
Neither are the pubs or restaurants
Ah ah ah you only have to look at clusters reports . Zero in university this week and only 3 open clusters and schools 25 this week and 62 clusters open. Pinocchio
@Isabel Oliveira: when are ya gonna get it …testing only occurs when symptoms present …every govt dept except education will tell you the young are a problem as they are mostly asymptomatic. That means no symptoms and no testing . So schools and university could be riddled with covid and we would not no.
Schools in particular are full of very young kids with mostly very young parents again asymptomatic who then go to pub hotel gym work etc and pass it on. Contact tracing then identifies the pub hotel gym or workplace as the problem area when in fact it all started with the asymptonatic schools …common sense …thats why you wont see ministers doing school visits now or for the forseeeable future they are terrified but golf outings are fine
Analysing data, published by NPHET, the proportion of 5-14 year olds who got COVID up to the 20th August was 1.7% of all infections. In contrast, the proportion who got COVID between 21st August and 12th October was 7.4% of infections during this period. The proportion of the population infected AFTER schools opened is much higher than the proportion infected BEFORE schools opened. In fact the proportion has more than quadrupled and is not equal as Minister Foley alleges.
Similarly for the 15-24 year old cohort the proportion rose from 8.3% of the population up to the 20th August to 32.4% of total infections for the period 21st August to 12thOctober, a tripling of the proportion affected by COVID, not equal as the Minister alleges.
I could only work with published data for the 5-14 age cohort and the 15-24 age cohort. The Minister referred to data in the 4-18 age cohort for similar time periods but that information isn’t published, or if it is I cant find it.
Given the facts that the 5-14 and 15-24 cohorts, that their proportions of total infections have increased dramatically (quadrupled and tripled in effect), I find it very hard to believe that the proportions of 4-18 year olds has remained steady at 14% for the period before schools opened and the period since schools reopened. It doesnt add up.
Sources of data
https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/b3fd5-statement-from-the-national-public-health-emergency-team-monday-12-october/
I would love to see this evidence. Asymptomatic cases are a huge factor in the spread of this virus and we know this because so many government departments tell us this.
However the department of education seem to ignore this warning. Children are not tested regularly and are only tested when they show symptoms and yet we know that many many children show absolutely no symptoms when infected, they are asymptomatic. These asymptomatic children pick it up in school and bring it home to most likely asymptomatic young parents who in turn pass it on in a pub or hotel or work and hey presto after contact tracing the pub or hotel or workplace or gym are identified as the source of new infections when in fact its the schools …
Common sense is common sense and this is common sense…
Liability against the minister for endangering children the only way to go on this
have your say