Coronavirus test kits arrive in northeast Syria with help of Kurdistan Region

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – This week, two PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) testing machines arrived in northeast Syria from the Kurdistan Region, which will help the Syrian-Kurdish–led authorities to test for coronavirus infections.

"Utmost thanks and appreciation to the President of Kurdistan Region, Mr. Nechirvan Barzani," Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) General Mazloum Abdi tweeted on Sunday.

"On his prompt and generous response to our request to send two medical laboratories for the detection of the Coronavirus [in northeast Syria], and his assistance to send more of them in support of our efforts to combat this pandemic."

So far, there have been no confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in northeast Syria due to the lack of coronavirus testing kits.

The Syrian government’s Ministry of Health has reported 19 infections, including two deaths. However, it is widely believed that Damascus is seriously underreporting the number of cases.

The only functioning test devices northeast Syria had were lost in October 2019, when Turkey invaded the Kurdish-majority city of SereKaniye. Turkish shelling of hospital in the city left the only testing laboratory in North and East Syria inoperable, a report of the Rojava Information Centre said on April 5.

"This left the northeast without having a single coronavirus testing kit and the World Health Organization (WHO) refuse to work with the local authorities here," Thomas McClure, a Syria-based researcher at the Rojava Information Center, told Kurdistan 24.

This is while the WHO send test kits to Syria’s Idlib province, which is controlled by the al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS), through Turkey. The WHO has also delivered 1200 testing kits to Syrian regime-controlled areas.

Furthermore, last year 40 percent of the medical supplies used in SDF-run areas have been cut after Russia and China in December vetoed the provision of aid coming from Iraq through the Yaroubiyeh border crossing. The US has called for the restoration of the cross-border deliveries.

To help the SDF and the authorities in the northeast, the US military on March 27 provided over $1 million of emergency assistance both for COVID-19 in hospitals in Hasakah and Shadadi and to safely secure prisons holding 10,000 members of the so-called Islamic State.

Now, the local Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria has at least two machines to test patients.

"(This) is a very positive step which will help them to detect the virus. Although they have quite limited number of the necessary testing strips but together with other symptom checks and frontline checks they will be able to use these machines effectively," McClure added.

Nevertheless, it will remain challenging to fight the virus itself since there are only a limited number of ventilators and ICU beds, and a considerable lack of medical staff.

According to a report of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) published last Thursday, northeast Syria has only "28 ICU (Intensive Care Unit) beds and 11 ventilators in the hospitals identified to quarantine and treat suspected COVID-19 cases."

"Now the focus moves from testing to preventing and treating the disease and it should not be forgotten that the UN WHO failed to provide these kits that were privately procured by the authorities," McClude concluded.

The Kurdish-led authorities in Syria have taken several measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic to their region, where the health system has been debilitated by almost a decade of civil war.

On March 23, a full curfew was imposed in the region to prevent the spread of the virus. This curfew was extended until 21 April last week.

Editing by Kosar Nawzad