Nearly 100 UN peacekeepers contract coronavirus

As many as 96 UN peacekeepers have been infected with the coronavirus, said Nick Bernbeck, head of communications for the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Report informs citing RIA Novosti.

“Ninety-six of the 100,000 peacekeepers involved in peacekeeping operations tested positive for the virus. Three of them serve in the Greek part of Cyprus, one in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, one in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone, five in the Central African Republic, three in South Sudan, 13 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and 70 in Mali. So far, 48 of them have recovered. No death was reported,” said the UN official.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged in late 2019 in China’s Hubei province, and the virus has spread to 212 countries and territories since then.

To date, COVID-19 cases surpassed 5,909,000 globally, resulting in more than over 362,000 deaths.

On February 11, the WHO officially named the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) as COVID-19, and on March 11, declared it a pandemic.