Four coronavirus infections in NE Syria – Autonomous Administration
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Health Board of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria announced, on Thursday, four coronavirus infections, three of them are in the city of Qamishli and one in the city of Hasakah.
In a press conference held in Qamishli on Thursday, Dr. Juan Mustafa, co-chair of the Health Board, said that ten people who had symptoms of the virus were tested and samples were taken to be tested in the PCR central laboratory in Qamishli.
He pointed out that the results of the tests confirmed that only four people were infected with the virus, two women and a man in Qamishli, and a woman in Hasakah, bringing the total number of infections in northeastern Syria to six, since two cases were earlier announced last April.
Mustafa stated that the situation of the four people is “not bad”, they do not suffer from advanced symptoms, and their condition does not require transferring them to treatment centers, so they are only subjected to home quarantine.
In a special interview with North Press, Dr. Mustafa said that the medical potential in the region will enable them to tackle the spread of coronavirus to a certain level.
He added that the Autonomous Administration has managed to prevent the spread of the virus in its regions during the past period, since the virus started spreading in Syria and the neighboring countries.
Dr. Mustafa accused unidentified parties of being “non-cooperative” with the Autonomous Administration, which had a role in the spread of the virus in the region, in reference to the Syrian government.
On more than one occasion last April, the Health Board accused the Syrian government of deliberately resuming flights from Damascus to Qamishli airport, and claimed that the airport authorities attempted to enter arrivals through government-controlled neighborhoods into Qamishli, in order to avoid their passage through medical teams' points concerned with testing the arrivals at the airport entrances.
Mustafa noted that the region entered a new phase, which is the phase of the spread of coronavirus and how to deal with it, calling on the population to take personal preventative measures and to cooperate with health committees and teams to implement precautionary measures against the spread of the virus.
Mustafa noted that there is no imposition of lockdown on the regions of northeastern Syria except for the crossings, but he expected that Crisis Management Team will issue a number of new protective measures after the registration of the four cases.
The Autonomous Administration completely closed the crossings from July 5th until further notice, as the virus expands in Syrian government controlled-areas and the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Earlier, on the 23th of March, Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria imposed a lockdown on the regions of northeastern Syria, which lasted for about three months after it was extended six times.
Reporting by Abdulhalim Suleiman