More than 700 passengers arrive from Syria’s Damascus to Qamishli without entering quarantine
QAMISHLI, Syria – (North Press) Qamishli Airport received two planes carrying more than 700 passengers from Damascus Airport on Monday morning, hours after the Syrian government and the Autonomous Administration announced the recording of new cases of coronavirus, but the arrivals went to their homes instead of the quarantine centers.
The first plane carried about 300 passengers, followed by the arrival of a plane belonging to Cham Wings Airlines that brought about 400 passengers to Qamishli.
One of the passengers told North Press via telephone all the arrivals left the airport without going to the quarantine centers and without any medical examination by the Syrian government, that controls Qamishli airport.
The woman, who preferred not to be named, added that the Autonomous Administration health teams conducted a temperature test outside the airport, after which the arrivals went home.
The Autonomous Administration had approved the subjecting of any humanitarian case to quarantine for a period of 14 days last Friday as part of a set of precautionary measures after it announced recording four coronavirus cases on Thursday, three in Qamishli and one in Hasakah.
The spokesperson for the Health Board in Qamishli, Rojin Ahmed, confirmed that no one was subjected to quarantine as a result of the size of these centers and the residents’ purposeful evasion of quarantine, adding that they asked the arrivals to adhere to home quarantine.
On more than one occasion, the Health Board has accused the Syrian government of deliberately resuming flights from Damascus to Qamishli and sending dozens arrivals into the city through its own areas.
Meanwhile, the official Syrian government news agency SANA reported that three flights will depart from Damascus to Qamishli this week on the occasion of Eid al-Adha.
During a press conference held last Thursday, co-chair of the Health Board Jiwan Mustafa accused a party – which he did not name – of lack of cooperation and trying to bring the epidemic into northeastern Syria, in reference to the Syrian government.
Reporting by Hoshang Hassan, editing by Lucas Chapman