UN envoy warns virus aggravating Haiti crisis

The United Nations Special Representative for Haiti said Friday the coronavirus pandemic has worsened the humanitarian and economic situation in the country.

During a virtual meeting of the UN Security Council, Helen La Lime said Haiti had been plunged into recession and would see an increasing number of citizens flee the island to seek a better life abroad, unless more help was offered.

She said that if the precarious economic situation in Haiti was not addressed soon, ''a primarily domestic problem could transform into a regional issue.''

La Lime expressed regret at local opposition to the establishment of coronavirus treatment clinics on Haiti.

She said it was "a manifestation of the lingering climate of denial, stigma and discrimination that exists in the country."

"A vicious circle of mistrust, recrimination, and ultimately violence, is once again starting to define the dynamics of Haitian politics at a time when the entire society should be unified in its response to the pandemic," she added.

Haiti has a population of 11 million people and has so far recorded 4,900 coronavirus cases and 84 deaths.