Qamishli – North-Press Agency
Lucas Chapman
In April this year, the United Nations made a statement claiming that “The United Nations and its partners are doing their utmost to support a comprehensive, multi-pronged effort to stem the impact of COVID-19 in Syria.” The statement went on to describe the work of the UN and its partner agencies in distributing medical aid to many regions of Syria. However, the situation on the ground in northeastern Syria makes these words seem like hollow self-congratulation to some working in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria’s healthcare institutions.
Ten years of war and power politics has left the healthcare system in the region struggling with several different obstacles, including ongoing external and internal conflicts and a lack of international support. However, despite these complications, dedicated workers in health institutions have remained firmly committed to fighting the outbreak using every opportunity available to them – and the results speak for themselves.
Assault from all sides
“There are two wars happening in Rojava (North and East Syria) now. One is against coronavirus and the other is against the Turkish invasion. At the same time that we are setting up quarantine centers and hospitals, we are having to bring our wounded in from the front,” Kurdish Red Crescent co-chair Jamila Hemi says.
The medical system in northeastern Syria, already strained by nearly a decade of unceasing war, was dealt another harsh blow when the Turkish military and their affiliated armed opposition groups invaded and occupied the areas of Serekaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad in October 2019.
Dr. Raperin Hassan, co-chair of the Autonomous Administration’s Health Board, echoes the statements made by the Kurdish Red Crescent. “The war and fighting is still ongoing. Whenever there is war, the medical sector always bears the largest burden,” she says. “Many members of our medical teams fell martyr during the invasion of Serekaniye.”
Though the UN called for an international ceasefire for greater cohesion in fighting coronavirus, the illegal invasion and occupation of North and East Syria still continues, with near daily shelling, bombing, and burning of agricultural lands by the Turkish military and its proxy forces. At the same time it called the world to come together to combat the deadly pandemic, the UN made it nearly impossible for aid to reach the vulnerable population in Syria’s northeast. In October of last year, the UN Security Council voted to close al-Yarubiya border crossing, the only official UN aid crossing into northeastern Syria. The Council voted to extend the closure yet again in February this year, and the region’s healthcare system has been greatly affected by this cutoff.
“We lost 70 to 75% of our medical aid, and were forced to shut down eleven of our centers because of the closure of this crossing,” Kurdish Red Crescent member Kemal Dirbas says.
One of the biggest obstacles that the Autonomous Administration faces in securing aid comes from the Syrian government. “The [Syrian] regime creates a lot of problems for us,” Dr. Raperin says. According to her, “the regime doesn’t allow aid that we request to reach our areas. Also, most of the international aid that arrives goes to the regime. This is a political issue. They say that our administration is not an official administration, and because of this they don’t communicate with us.” Even an internal UN paper mentioned that the UN is only authorized to fund aid groups that are authorized to operate by the Syrian government, automatically excluding many charity and relief organizations that would otherwise distribute aid in the autonomous regions.
Dr. Raperin adds that in addition to refusing to provide aid or allowing it to reach Autonomous Administration areas, the regime also deliberately sows chaos. “People who come here from Damascus must enter a quarantine…they stopped transportation between all other governorates, but travel between Damascus and Qamishli is allowed. They left the airport open, and every week three or four planes come. They help them to avoid entering the quarantine by using other roads.”
Measures in the face of adversity
“At the end of February, when we realized that the virus was spreading throughout the world, we saw it as a threat to Rojava. First we closed all borders, schools, and institutes with help from the administration. The lockdown was actually an opportunity for us to work quickly to make preparations – to set up quarantine centers, hospitals, et cetera,” Jamila Hemi said of the early precautionary measures against coronavirus in the autonomous northeast. A lockdown was imposed, with all non-essential shops ordered to shut their doors. Only shops selling food, fuel, medicine, or baby formula were allowed to remain open.
If a resident suspects they may be ill with coronavirus, they can call a number broadcast on local TV channels and written on distributed brochures and posters across the city, at which point a specialized team donning protective equipment will arrive and administer a rapid test. If the result is positive, a sample will be collected and tested by one of three PCR devices in Qamishli, Raqqa, or Kobani, according to the Health Board.
In April, the COVID-19 hospital in Hasakeh, a hospital purpose-built for coronavirus patients, was completed. The hospital was constructed and equipped in only about a month, and is currently staffed by the Kurdish Red Crescent in Syria, with equipment donated by the Kurdish Red Crescent in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Italian NGO UPP, with their ability to share several months of difficult experiences fighting coronavirus in particularly hard-hit Italy, provided training to the hospital staff, including how to don, remove, and burn protective clothing. The hospital currently has 120 beds equipped with oxygen for patients needing moderate levels of care in addition to six ventilators for critical cases.
Though UN Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen recently stated that there is still a great risk for a deadly coronavirus outbreak in Syria, and that measures should not be relaxed too soon, the guidelines put in place by the Health Board and Kurdish Red Crescent appear to have limited the virus’s spread thus far. The autonomous region has only officially recorded two cases of coronavirus, one of which recovered at home, and the other is currently recovering in the regime’s National Hospital in Qamishli. Some of the measures have been relaxed, something which concerns the Kurdish Red Crescent, though many found the easing of the lockdown necessary in order to reduce the economic suffering of workers who depend on a daily wage.
Thankfully, the number of cases remains low, and the COVID-19 hospital remains empty, still awaiting the arrival of its first patient. Only time will tell if the measures put in place by the administration are enough – but they are prepared for the outbreak should it begin to spread throughout the region.