Gaza's children ravaged by third wave of COVID-19 pandemic

A correspondent in Gaza

Sep 28, 2021

An employee of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees measures the body temperature of a girl as people arrive to receive the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine at UNRWA's clinic in Rafah camp, southern Gaza Strip, March 3, 2021. — Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Iman Naim was admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital in the Gaza Strip suffering from severe coronavirus symptoms. She contracted the virus from her granddaughter Heba, 13, in early September. Since the start of the school year, the infection rate among students has sharply increased during the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Naim told Al-Monitor, “My granddaughter caught the virus at school, but she only showed mild symptoms including a fever. Then I also started feeling sick with coronavirus symptoms. My condition worsened and I stayed in the hospital for about two weeks.”