Haiti is no stranger to crisis, and amongst all the already existing issues like widespread unemployment, unrest, high rates of poverty and poor healthcare, the global pandemic has struck Haiti worse than ever, with the existing hunger crisis becoming more worrying than ever because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a press address, Haiti’s World Food Programme Director Pierre Honnorat had told that he expects hunger to “get much worse.”
With more than a million Haiti nationals already hunger-stricken, even before the outbreak, thanks to the depreciating value of the Haitian currency, and restrictions causing a disruption in the economic activities, Honorat said that those citizens who are more vulnerable will be “pushed deeper into poverty”, and that the country’s reliance on imported foods also leaves it particularly vulnerable to the pandemic’s global economic toll.
More than 34,000 people live in 22 settlement camps across Haiti, as per reports from the International Organization for Migration. Haiti has so far reported 100 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 11 deaths, according to PAHO Director Etienne, who says that the probability of further spread is “extremely high.”