Child vaccination centers witness a decrease in number of patients in conjunction with lockdown – Kobani

Kobani – North-Press Agency
Fattah Issa – Fayad Muhammad

Child vaccination centers in the city of Kobani, northern Syria, have recently witnessed a decrease in the number of patients, in conjunction with the imposed lockdown, to avoid the spread of the novel coronavirus epidemic.

Rania Kawi, head of the Vaccines Department of the Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC) in Kobani, told North-Press: "KRC continues to provide children with routine vaccinations on a daily basis in the city of Kobani and its countryside, where Sundays and Mondays are allocated to the city and the other days are for the countryside.”

Kawi explained that there is a decrease in the number of patients during the lockdown period, stressing the need for parents to bring their children from the age of one day to five years, and not to delay their vaccine.

“Kurdish Red Crescent is taking preventive measures against the spread of coronavirus, as the center has been completely sterilized, and all the workers at the center use masks and medical gloves," according to Kawi.

Kawi said; “However, KRC is suffering from the loss and expiration of some routine childhood vaccines such as BCG (for tuberculosis), MMR, polio, and the tetanus vaccine for reproductive health in women.”

On March 19th, the Autonomous Administration of North and East of Syria announced a lockdown in all its regions, starting from March 23rd, and it continues for a period of 15 days as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus epidemic.