Doctor-to-Doctor exchange on Covid-19, linking Italy and the Gaza Strip, 11th April 2020

On the 11th April Forward Thinking and the Order of Malta convened a workshop between Ministry of Health officials in the Gaza Strip, and two Italian  health experts in order to discuss the COVID-19 crisis.The meeting was an opportunity for health experts to exchange learning on how best to tackle COVID-19. Advice on quarantine procedures; testing; and potential treatments were exchanged, with the Doctors from Italy sharing their hard won insights from being at the forefront of the response in Lombardy.Given Gaza's extremely high population density and poor infrastructure, social distancing measures are extremely difficult. In Gaza’s refugee camps, they may be virtually impossible. An outbreak of COVID-19 within Gaza would spread rapidly, overwhelming the health system, whose capacity is severely depleted after successive conflicts, the siege and blockade of Gaza.Accordingly, it was agreed that Gaza's best defence against the virus is to maintain an effective quarantine at its borders. However, this can only occur if the Ministry receives an adequate supply of testing kits and PPE to ensure health workers remain safe and do not inadvertently bring the virus back into the general population.This meeting was the first in a series of doctor-to-doctors that Forward Thinking and the Order of Malta are planning to help support the global effort to combat COVID-19.