(VOVWORLD) - The World Health Organization said Wednesday it is taking advantage of a post-earthquake pause in sanctions to move badly needed health supplies and equipment into war-torn Syria.
 Syrian children displaced by the quake take shelter in a refugee camp in Jableh on February 12, 2023. (Photo: AFP/VNA)
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Richard Brennan, the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean regional emergency director, told a press conference in Gaziantep city in southern Turkey that the WHO has already started ordering equipment and supplies and is working with UN partners on a collective approach to take advantage of the pause.
Brennan, who just returned from northern Syria, said medicines, vaccines, X-ray machines, and surgical tools are badly needed.
According to the WHO, seven hospitals and 145 health facilities in Syria were damaged in the 7.8-magnitude-quake on February 6.
More than 42,000 people in Turkey and more than 3,600 Syrians have been reported killed. More than 125,000 were injured.