Coronavirus closes section in Hawl camp, Syria

HAWL, Syria (North Press) – The management of Hawl camp in the southeastern countryside of the city of Hasakah, southeastern Syria, imposed a lockdown on one of the camp’s sections on Tuesday after the discovery of a coronavirus infection. 

“The health teams and the Kurdish Red Crescent in the camp discovered the infection of a 70-year-old woman with coronavirus inside Hawl camp,” an official in the camp told North Press. 

She added that they imposed a quarantine on the section in order to find out the cases in contact with the infected woman, to limit their number, and conduct medical tests for the whole section.

The official did not reveal the source of the woman’s infection with the virus. 

According to the camp management, Hawl camp houses more than 65,000 Iraqi and Syrian IDPs and refugees, including thousands of families of ISIS fighters who are under heavy guard by the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria.

Hawl camp was opened in mid-April 2016 to receive IDPs who were fleeing the areas controlled by ISIS in Syria and Iraq.