COVID-19 is a contagious new viral disease and much remains to be understood. Unlike influenza, there is no known pre-immunity, no vaccine, no specific treatment and everyone is presumed to be susceptible.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is very concerned about the impact of COVID-19 in countries with already fragile health systems. On any given day, our staff treats tens of thousands of patients for a variety of illnesses in our medical programs around the world. In many areas where we work, there are few medical organizations in a position to respond to an overload of patients.

Almost every country has now reported cases of COVID-19. In March 2020, WHO declared the outbreak as a pandemic.

View more information about COVID-19 - Novel Coronavirus: MSF Canada Resources

In Canada, MSF has used its expertise in emergency outbreak response, providing valuable guidance to medical organizations, government agencies and Indigenous communities to prevent and manage COVID-19 outbreaks. MSF Canada also created two eBriefings related to COVID-19, one on infection prevention and control (IPC) and another on adapting and developing medical facilities. Learn more about MSF Canada's COVID-19 resources.
View more information about Mexico, Honduras & El Salvador: A Multidisciplinary COVID-19 response

Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador have been responding to the COVID-19 emergency for the last six months and all three countries are now showing a decreasing number of cases.
View more information about Iraq: From one crisis to another for the Yazidis

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a profound impact on the Yazidi community in Sinjar district in north-west Iraq.
View more information about Mosul, Iraq: MSF teams working on COVID-19 and lifesaving medical care

Mosul is located in Ninawa Governorate, home to a population of 3.5 million, with merely one hospital bed for every 3,000 persons.
View more information about In remote Kyrgyzstan, COVID-19 puts strain on health system

As COVID-19 cases surge in Kyrgyzstan, especially in the capital Bishkek, rural and remote regions are bracing themselves for the virus by scaling up preventive measures.
View more information about COVID-19 in El Salvador: MSF warns of increase of deaths and collapse of health system

MSF has warned of an increase in people dying of COVID-19 in the metropolitan area of San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador.
View more information about Ahead of Gavi Board meeting, MSF calls on Gavi to revise its global mechanism and demand pharma sell all COVID-19 vaccines at cost

The Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance will meet this week on June 24-25.
View more information about Bihar, India: MSF opens 100-bed COVID-19 treatment centre

As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continues to rise in India, MSF opened a 100-bed temporary treatment centre for COVID-19 patients in Patna, the capital of Bihar state in the northeast of the country.
View more information about Mexico: MSF supports migrants and homeless people at risk of COVID-19

The MSF team is visiting shelters, hostels, hotels and community kitchens to provide medical care and psychological support and to offer advice and practical help on preventive measures, aimed at the people using these facilities as well as the staff and volunteers who run them.
View more information about MSF opens Khayelitsha Field Hospital as South Africa braces for COVID-19

In May, South Africa’s Health Minister warned that with the current infection rate, South Africa would surpass its hospital bed capacity, potentially by the end of June.
View more information about COVID-19 map: A global emergency

MSF teams are responding to the pandemic in various countries around the world.
View more information about Eastern Burkina Faso: Out of sight, people suffer from unprecedented rise in violence

By Abdallah Hussein, MSF head of mission in Burkina Faso.
View more information about COVID-19 in Haiti: MSF raises an alert over alarming spread

In response to the growing spread of COVID-19 in Haiti, MSF opened the Drouillard treatment center in Port-au- Prince on May 16, to care for patients suffering from the most severe cases of the virus.
View more information about Any future COVID-19 vaccines must be sold at cost and accessible to all

The Vaccine Alliance, prepares to launch a global mechanism to negotiate with corporations on such vaccines, and appeals to governments to set up a fund to purchase them for developing countries.
View more information about Yemen: “We have a lot of people like that: a lot of people that die quickly”

“For us, the healthcare workers, it makes us feel helpless. We can’t do much but give them oxygen. There are days we have had 13 deaths in the same day.”
View more information about COVID-19 in Mexico: MSF opens two centres in Reynosa & Matamoros

The two centres are housed in Tamaulipas State University basketball gymnasiums.
View more information about Venezuela: MSF opens COVID-19 centre in Caracas

More than 100 professionals from different disciplines have set up a specialist COVID-19 centre in a wing of the Ana Francisca Pérez de León II hospital in Petare, northeast Caracas.
View more information about Unregulated market for PPE is putting lives at risk

Regulation is needed for all countries to protect healthcare staff and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
View more information about COVID-19: MSF responds in Amazonas, Brazil

Despite its relative small population, the state of Amazonas is among the regions with the highest absolute number of deaths caused by COVID-19 in Brazil.
View more information about Adapting our way of working and keeping essential medical services running during the COVID-19 pandemic

While the world’s attention is understandably focused on the direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to see the health crisis from a broader perspective.
View more information about COVID-19: in Aden's only treatment centre we are seeing a catastrophe unfold

Aden was already struggling with a healthcare system that had collapsed after five years of war in Yemen before COVID-19 arrived, and the authorities lack the means to properly respond to the outbreak.
View more information about COVID-19 in West Africa: 'Let's prepare for a long-distance run'

It has been close to three months now since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Africa. The contamination curves are today much flatter than those seen in France, Italy or the United States.
View more information about Responding to Cholera as COVID-19 threatens Kenya's health system

Heavy rains across Kenya and the wider region have led to floods and forced many people from their homes. Now, the town of Telesgaye, a community in Kenya’s north-east Marsabit County, is fighting a cholera outbreak.
View more information about Five things we can do to protect people on the move during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately impacting the world’s most vulnerable. Among them are more than 70 million forcibly displaced people worldwide.
View more information about COVID-19 and lack of protective equipment threaten life-saving medical care for vulnerable people in Mathare, Kenya

For the over half a million people living in Mathare, one of Kenya’s largest slums, the arrival of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country may present an even bigger risk than being infected with the virus.
View more information about Responding to COVID-19 in conflict-affected eastern Ukraine

The spread of COVID-19 threatens to further overwhelm the country’s healthcare capacity.
View more information about Eswatini: Responding to COVID-19 in a country already fighting a dual HIV/TB epidemic

Dr Bernhard Kerschberger, MSF Head of Mission in Eswatini, describes the challenges his team face responding to COVID-19 in a setting with high rates of HIV and TB.
View more information about COVID-19: MSF provides critically-needed medical care in Tijuana

MSF's response to the pandemic in this space will be coordinated with the Baja California state Secretary of Health and a civil society organization Apoyemos Tijuana (Let's Support Tijuana).
View more information about COVID-19: 'If they don't have food to eat, why would they have soap?'

By David Walubila Mwinyi, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Medical Data Supervisor in South Kivu, Demcratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
View more information about COVID-19: Five challenges in Bangladesh and the Rohingya refugee camps

As COVID-19 spreads through Bangladesh, these are the five key challenges to overcome.
View more information about MSF demands the end of deportations from the US to Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States government must suspend all deportations to Latin America and the Caribbean during the COVID-19 pandemic.
View more information about DRC: COVID-19 must not jeopardize the fight against deadly diseases

Overshadowed by outbreaks of Ebola last year and by COVID-19 today, the measles epidemic in DRC continues to kill children every day.
View more information about COVID-19 in East Africa: Responding in Kenya

By Lili-Marie Wangari, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for MSF in Kenya. Wangari is working on the organization’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
View more information about COVID-19: The abnormal normality in the West Bank

A full lockdown has been in place in the West Bank for more than three weeks, with over 300 cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
View more information about COVID-19 in New York: Vulnerable communities need urgent protection

Greater focus on under-resourced communities in the United States is urgently needed to ensure that all people can protect themselves and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
View more information about COVID-19: providing care to vulnerable people in Brazil

Teams are working in São Paulo and Roraima, focusing on people experiencing homelessness and migrants.
View more information about Northeast Syria: First confirmed COVID-19 case increases concerns for preparedness

As the first reported death from COVID-19 is confirmed in north-east Syria, MSF is concerned about the region’s preparedness and capacity to respond to an outbreak.
View more information about Countering COVID-19 not a free pass to court tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea

European governments must stop using the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to enforce deadly migration control policies and must immediately lift the obstacles preventing NGOs from saving lives at sea.
View more information about COVID-19: MSF supports response in Cameroon

In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Cameroon has emerged with one of the highest numbers of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa.
View more information about MSF responds to COVID-19 in Canada

MSF announces collaboration to assist people experiencing homelessness at Toronto’s 1st COVID-19 Recovery site.
View more information about Paris, France: COVID-19 response must be accessible for most vulnerable

By Annelise Coury, who is coordinating MSF’s response to COVID-19 in the region.
View more information about Iraq: MSF supports hospitals responding to the COVID-19 outbreak

Recent days have seen a significant rise in the number of patients with COVID-19 in Iraq, with over 1000 infections and 60 confirmed deaths, according to the MOH.
View more information about Northwest Syria: Navigating COVID-19 in precarious context

The necessary supplies for his treatment were not available in one of the medical facilities and the other one was not yet ready to admit suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients.
View more information about Yemen: Authorities must do all they can to facilitate COVID-19 response

More PPE and testing capacity urgently needs to be imported into Yemen both for the national health system and for humanitarian organizations.
View more information about COVID-19 in Tanzania: Refugees in host camps most vulnerable

An open letter from Pete Clausen, MSF Head of Mission in Tanzania.
View more information about COVID-19: MSF scales up activities in Lebanon

MSF has launched activities in Lebanon to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming at increasing access to healthcare for vulnerable communities.
View more information about Tenosique, Mexico: MSF calls for new measures for migrants following detention centre fire

MSF calls for migrants in detention centres to be released and given access to proper medical care and protection following Tenosique detention centre fire.
View more information about COVID-19 in France: Ensuring continued access to medical care for vulnerable people in Paris and the suburbs

Last week MSF teams began providing medical care to vulnerable people confined in emergency shelters or still living on the streets or in makeshift camps in Paris and the suburbs.
View more information about COVID-19: MSF launches it's largest ever response in Belgium

With just over 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 recorded for a population of 11 million, Belgium is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic.
View more information about Northwest Syria: COVID-19 adds an additional layer of complexity

Written by Cristian Reynders, MSF Field Coordinator in Northwest Syria.
View more information about Closing Canada’s border to refugee claimants is dangerous and illegal, and must be reversed?

Today’s statement urges for continuity and continued measures that will protect both public health and the health of all.
View more information about Idlib, Syria: MSF continues providing relief items and adapts response to COVID-19 threat

Tthe COVID-19 epidemic has become a huge challenge worldwide and in Syria.
View more information about COVID-19: MSF calls for no patents or profiteering on drugs, tests and vaccines in pandemic

MSF calls for no patents or profiteering on drugs, tests, or vaccines used for the COVID-19 pandemic, and for governments to prepare to suspend and override patents and take other measures, such as price controls, to ensure availability, reduce prices and save more lives.
View more information about Italy: “A new approach to public health, the big change needed to fight COVID-19”

By Dr Claudia Lodesani, MSF Italy president and emergency coordinator for COVID-19.
View more information about COVID-19 in Italy: Medical staff working beyond limits in Italian epicentre

In Italy, we are supporting three hospitals at the first epicentre of the outbreak in the North
View more information about COVID-19 in Cote d'Ivoire: Preparation is key to coping with pandemic

MSF has been working for the past 15 days to respond to the coronavirus pandemic recently declared in Côte d'Ivoire.
View more information about COVID-19 in West Africa: Focus on the most vulnerable and learning from the past

Dr Dorian Job, MSF West Africa Program Manager in Dakar, provides an update on the situation and priorities at this stage.
View more information about COVID-19: Inclusion of asylum seekers is more effective than closing borders

The US government's decision to block asylum proceedings and close the US-Mexico border threatens the healthy and safety of thousands.
View more information about COVID-19: MSF steps up response in Spain

Leveraging its experience and expertise in managing epidemics in contexts where health and social care systems are fragile or unable to cope with such situations, MSF is stepping up its COVID-19 response.
View more information about COVID-19 in Iran: MSF 'deeply surprised' as Iranian authorities put a stop to coronavirus response

MSF is ready to deploy its emergency team and inflatable 50-bed facility elsewhere in Iran or to other countries where they are urgently needed.
View more information about World Tuberculosis Day 2020: COVID-19 and TB require global solidarity

TB is the world’s leading infectious disease killer with nearly 10 million people affected and 1.5 million deaths in 2018
View more information about COVID-19 in Iran: MSF provides support with response in second worst affected province

MSF has sent a 50-bed inflatable treatment unit and an emergency team of nine people to Isfahan, the second worst affected province in Iran, to increase hospital capacity for treating the critically ill.
View more information about COVID-19 in Codongo, Italy: 'Our priority is to protect hospital staff'

One of the key aims of our team is to protect hospital staff from being infected with the virus.
View more information about 'We can't let them down': COVID-19 hurts the most vulnerable

COVID-19 will take a particular toll in the places where MSF was already needed to deliver emergency medical care.
View more information about COVID-19: A letter from Dr. Christos Christou, MSF International President

Our International President discusses the COVID-19 pandemic.
View more information about COVID-19: MSF prepares for action in France as spread continues

Faced with the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic, the French health system is strengthening its capacity to prevent and treat cases.
View more information about COVID-19: Urgent help needed across European borders to protect medical staff

MSF urges greater solidarity amongst European Member States.
View more information about COVID-19: What is MSF doing?

What questions does MSF face in this context? An interview with Clair Mills, MSF’s medical director.
View more information about COVID-19: Evacuation of squalid Greek camps more urgent than ever

A case of COVID-19 coronavirus on Lesbos has sparked fresh fears for the health and safety of people trapped in camps on the Greek islands.
View more information about COVID-19: MSF starts response activities in four northern Italian hospitals

MSF staff are based in four hospitals in the northern Italian province of Lodi, part of the Lombardy region, the epicentre of the outbreak in the country.
View more information about COVID-19: Ocean Viking arbitrarily quarantined by Italian authorities over fears

« Il s'agit d'une action discriminatoire – les seuls navires mis en quarantaine sont ceux qui effectuent des opérations de sauvetage. »
View more information about COVID-19: Preparing in South-east Asia

Tankred Stöbe, MSF emergency coordinator, visited several countries in South-East Asia to assess their preparedness for potential outbreaks of COVID-19 coronavirus and the support MSF could provide.
View more information about COVID-19: Providing materials and engaging communities during outbreak

Specialized medical protective equipment from MSF is on its way to Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital in the capital city of Hubei province, China, the epicentre of the current coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak.
View more information about COVID-19 (formerly known nCoV-2019)

MSF is following the fast-evolving development of the disease COVID-19 (formerly known nCoV-2019) it is a type of coronavirus.

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