Geneva, August 10 (RHC)-- The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was scrambling to deploy $1.7 million worth of personal protective equipment to Beirut after 17 containers filled will supplies and equipment for the COVID-19 response were destroyed in the city's devastating chemical explosion.

Dr Rick Brennan, the WHO emergencies director for the eastern Mediterranean region, said 6,100 people were injured in the blast and stressed the importance of now balancing the coronavirus response with pressing immediate needs such as trauma care and psychosocial support.

"This massive extra burden of injured people, displaced people, means that resources are going to have to be focused on that response -- and we worry that an already overburdened health system and the Ministry of Health is now going to be overstretched to meet the needs of both the COVID response and the emergency response."