An update from our institutes in Amman and East Jerusalem
Since the start of May, Jordan's strict lock-down measures have been easing with public employees returning to work after the end of the Eid Al Fitr holiday last Tuesday. The number of cases are thankfully relatively low at 728. Sirens continue to go off every evening at 7 pm to enforce curfew until 8 am the following day. Ramadan had its usual special rhythm and feel, but the two days before and the first day of Eid itself were under comprehensive curfew, and these seem set to continue every Friday. Members of the Amman team are now going into the office - with appropriate social distancing measures - as well as continuing to work from home.
In Jerusalem, by the first week of May, work and movement restrictions were eased, resulting in the return of staff to the institute. Despite relatively high case numbers of coivd-19 per capita across Israel-Palestine, great discrepancy exists between Israeli and Palestinian case numbers (16,800 and 435 respectively). Unresolved and festering Israeli-Palestinian conflict dynamics certainly complicate the pandemic response, with there being at least three formal policies in effect (Israeli, West Bank and Gaza Strip Palestinian governments) to say nothing of several others informally being implemented locally across the patchwork of areas in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that do not functionally fall beneath any of these.
