Sixteen thousand security members to control anti-coronavirus curfew in northeast Syria

QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A senior Kurdish official in northeast Syria said on Thursday that 16,000 members of the Internal Security Forces (Asayesh) were deployed to control the process of the curfew imposed in the region.

Kan’an Barakat, co-head of Interior Authority, noted that hundreds of checkpoints were added to the entrances of the cities, towns and villages to control the curfew to stop the spread of coronavirus in the region.

“All the Asayesh departments are on alert,” he said.  

The Autonomous Administration imposed a full curfew on Thursday in accordance with the increase of the number of the confirmed coronavirus cases to 54 cases in north and east Syria.

Syrian Kurdish authorities have already taken precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic to their region, where the health system has been severely damaged and overtaxed by almost a decade of civil war.

Despite such measures, the very real danger of a local coronavirus outbreak still exists and is exacerbated by the lax restrictions in regime-held territories that border the northeast, especially at checkpoints on the outskirts of Deir al-Zor, Raqqa, and Manbij provinces.

In the cities of Tabqa, located southwest of Raqqa, and in Manbij, those coming from regime and rebel areas are being checked by administration medical teams for symptoms consistent with the coronavirus before being permitted to enter the Kurdish-controlled areas. Additional mobile teams are also working to spread information about the virus and make recommendations aimed at curbing contagion.

(Reporting by Hoshang Hassan; Editing by Hisham Arafat)