Syria’s health ministry is continuing to claim that no cases as of Friday had been recorded in the war-torn parts of the country in its control, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.
It quoted Health Minister Nizar Yazigi as saying his ministry should be the only source for information on the disease and not “what are being circulated on websites of rumors and baseless news.”
“When an infection exists it will be announced immediately,” SANA quoted him as saying.
However, many are skeptical of this claim, saying the country’s medical facilities have been devastated by nine years of war, while others worry what is happening in the areas not under the control of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
“The reality is that, after nine years of conflict, the health system, and infrastructure that would be vital in combating any public health emergency have been decimated,” says Amjad Yamin, a spokesman for the NGO Save the Children in its Syria response unit told US News and World Report.
"The reality is that, after nine years of conflict, the health system and infrastructure that would be vital in combating any public health emergency have been decimated" says @yaminamjad, a spokesman for the NGO @save_children in its #Syria response unit.https://t.co/d46k26YZkK
— Save the Children Middle East and Eastern Europe (@savechildrenmee) March 19, 2020
“It would be incredibly difficult to control an outbreak among nearly a million newly displaced people in overcrowded conditions hemmed in by vicious fighting,” he said.
In many parts of the country, there is not even clean water for people to wash their hands.
Earlier in the week the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters that doctors had picked up cases of coronavirus in Damascus and three other provinces – a claim that has been refuted by the Syrian government.
According to Reuters Pakistani authorities said at least five of their country’s coronavirus cases originated in Syria. Other reports said Pakistani authorities referred to potentially eight cases coming from Syria.
All of Syria’s neighbors have reported cases of COVID-19, but it is in rebel-held Idlib where the greatest concern lies. And north of Idlib is Turkey, which has seen a spike in coronavirus cases, going from 359 cases on Friday to 670 cases on Saturday.
Turkey has thousands of troops in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province and an estimated 3.6 million Syrian refugees on its own territory, where conditions are far from ideal for containing an epidemic.
It was a fact Turkey’s ambassador to the US Serdar Kilic conceded in an interview with US broadcaster NBC earlier this month.
While Turkey had tightened border controls with Iran, Kilic described any bid to control the spread of the virus in Syrian refugee camps near its border as “mission impossible”.
But while much of the world’s focus has been on Idlib, the Jerusalem Post reports that the part of eastern Syria that is under the control of the Kurdish dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is not even able to test for the virus and has hardly any hospital capacity to deal with an outbreak.
The areas under SDF control are reportedly unable to get supplies from either Turkey or the Assad regime.
The presence of Iranian backed and trained militias in Syria, as well as Iraq, has raised questions over the presence of the virus in Syria as well as the government’s claims that there are no cases.
Syed Murad Ali Shah, chief minister of Pakistan’s Sindh, said on Tuesday that nationals returning from the Middle East were responsible for the outbreak in the southeastern province.
“The eight cases were those that came from Doha. Before Doha, they were either coming from Iraq or Syria,” he told Geo TV.
Middle East Eye reported that it had been informed that Pakistanis returning from the Middle East were likely to be members of the Zainebiyoun Brigade, an Iran-backed militia fighting in Syria on the side of the al-Assad.
Iran-backed militias roam freely within Syria and Iraq. The concern is that they may be importing the virus from Iran, which has been hit hard by the pandemic with more than 18,000 infections and 1200 deaths.
The post Syria maintains no coronavirus claims as concerns mount appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2020/03/21/syria-maintains-no-coronavirus-claims-as-concerns-mount/
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