WHO to provide Northeast Syria with anti-coronavirus medical supplies
QAMISHLI, Syria (Kurdistan 24) – The World Health Organization (WHO) will soon be distributing medical supplies to fight the coronavirus in the Kurdish-led self-administration areas of northeast Syria, a senior WHO official told Kurdistan 24.
This will be the first such supplies that northeast Syria receives from the international health body, and they will be much appreciated.
On Tuesday, WHO tweeted an announcement that it had dispatched 20 tons of medical equipment to the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli.
"#WHO airlifted a 20-ton medical shipment to #Al_Qamishli as a part of its response,” to the coronavirus crisis, the international health organization stated.
“The shipment contains more than 8000 #treatments and other #COVID19 medical supplies such as incubators, ventilators, and other personal protective equipment,” WHO’s tweet continued.
“The majority of this shipment will go to the self-administration controlled area,” Dr Nima Abid, the acting WHO Representative in Syria, told Kurdistan 24 in an e-mail late on Thursday.
“WHO’s sub-office in al-Qamishli will start distributing the received supplies within the coming few days,” he added. Meanwhile, the medical supplies were “shipped directly to the WHO warehouse” in Qamishli “to finalize the inventory,” along with “facilitation letters for the movement of the trucks.”
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This news will be very welcome to both the people and officials of the Kurdish-led self-administration. Earlier on Thursday, Dr. Jiwan Mustafa, head of the Health Authority in northeast Syria, told Kurdistan 24, “Until this moment, the self-administration hasn't received any supplies from WHO regarding COVID-19.”
Indeed, people living in northeast Syria had been dismayed by the shipment of such a large amount of supplies to what they assumed would be the government-held parts of the area.
Damascus controls only extremely limited territory there: just one-quarter of the city of Qamishli, including the airport, and a very small neighborhood of Hasakah city. That constitutes less than 5 percent of the area of northeast Syria that is controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who have been the most significant partner in Syria to the US-led Coalition in the fight against the Islamic State
However, as Dr. Abid explained, the new supplies will be sent to major health facilities throughout northeast Syria. WHO’s distribution plan includes “Al-Tabqah hospital, al-Raqqa Hospital, the health authorities in al-Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor,” as well as “Manbij Hospital, al-Hasakah National Hospital, in addition to the al-Hasakah Department of Health, and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent,” Abid said.
Until this point, the self-administration areas in northeast Syria had been extremely short of supplies to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier, the Kurdistan Regional Government provided two PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) machines to test for the virus, while the US-led Coalition provided $1.2 million in medical supplies and equipment.
Editing by Laurie Mylroie
