Eight-four patients including children in eastern Ghouta are the top priority for medical evacuations among 1,000 sick and wounded needing treatment in the besieged Syrian enclave, a senior World Health Organization official told Reuters on Friday.
Dr. Peter Salama, WHO deputy director and head of its health emergencies programme, also said that the U.N. agency hoped to deliver vital medical and surgical supplies soon to the opposition-controlled area of 400,000 people near Damascus.
"What we're calling for as WHO is at the very least an immediate approval from the Syrian government and all the warring parties for evacuation of the critically unwell, starting with the top 84 which have been listed by the NGOs, U.N. agencies and Red Cross as the most urgent based on WHO's triage criteria," Salama said in an interview at WHO headquarters in Geneva.
