International
Angelos Tzortzinis/picture alliance via Getty Images
An official of the Ministry of Health wearing a protective suit walks next to a migrant at the entrance to the Ritsona camp. The Greek Coronavirus crisis team has quarantined a refugee camp in northern Athens for 14 days. The situation in the Ritsona camp - where the Athenian media estimate that around 3,000 people live - is far from as bad as in the camps on the islands in the eastern Aegean.
- A refugee camp in Greece is under a 14-day quarantine after residents tested positive for the coronavirus.
- The 20 people initially tested had no symptoms.
- All 2,700 residents will be tested during the 2-week lockdown, NPR reported.
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The Ritsona refugee camp near Athens was placed on a two-week quarantine after 20 of its 2,700 residents tested positive for the coronavirus, several news agencies reported.
The testing began after a woman who was living there tested positive for the virus after she was taken to a nearby hospital to give birth, last week, Al Jazeera reported.
Everyone who tested positive was asymptomatic, according to Al Jazeera.
NPR reported that during the two-week quarantine, all 2,700 residents of the camp will be tested for the virus.
Only essential people like healthcare workers will be allowed to go into the camps.
"No one can go in or out," Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis said according to NPR.
While the Moira refugee camp is known for its horrible conditions with close to 20,000 people crammed into a space meant for 3,000, NPR reports that the Ritsona camp is one of the better-maintained camps in Greece.
Several rights organizations have previously asked the Greek government to release refugees from the camps, especially in places like the Moira camp where there's just one water source for over 1,000 residents to share and limited to no soap, Business Insider previously reported.
While Mitarakis said the Greek mainland can't accommodate the refugees, he asked other European Union states to relocate the refugees, according to NPR.
"We will strongly welcome any offers of relocation from member states that have capacity," Mitarakis told members of the European Parliament's home affairs committee.
However, despite the political limitations, refugees in the Ritsona camp are preparing on how to handle the outbreak.
Al Jazeera reported that Parwana Amiri, a 16-year-old from Afghanistan living in the camp has been informing other residents about the virus and teaching others the good hygiene practices and encouraging them to teach their families.
Amiri told Al Jazeera that everyone she knows is concerned about the outbreak.
"This virus does not have any borders and treats all equally, While you stay at home, we have to stay in the camp where there is no guarantee of health safety," Amiri told Al Jazeera.
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