Politics

No new coronavirus cases registered in past week in northeast Syria: Kurdish Administration

The Kurdish-led administration in northeastern Syria’s said on Wednesday that no new coronavirus cases had been registered in areas under their jurisdiction since the first two infections were confirmed last week.

Hisham Arafat 2020/05/06 20:11

middle east Syria Rojava Coronavirus COVID-19 Hasakah Qamishli Damascus

QAMISHLI, Syria ( Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdish-led administration in northeastern Syria said on Wednesday that no new coronavirus cases had been registered in areas under their jurisdiction since the first two infections were confirmed last week.

After officials confirmed the first two coronavirus cases in the country’s northeast city of Hasakah last week, the administration imposed a strict lockdown on the whole city, besieging it from all sides and restricting travel into or from the city.

“The only two coronavirus cases we have in northeast Syria are in good condition,” said Dr. Menal Mihemed, the co-head of the administration's health department in Jazira province, while speaking to reporters in a press conference in the city of Qamishli.

The two major predominantly Kurdish cities in Syria's northeast are Qamishli and Hasakah are both located in Jazira, one of the three provinces that fall under the reach of the administration, controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Al-Furat province, containing the Arab majority cities of Raqqa and Deir al-Zor, is also considered administration territory.

Both Jazira and al-Furat provinces are located east of the Euphrates River, while the canton of Shahba, which contains Manbij and Tel Rifaat in the northern part of Aleppo province, is located west of the Euphrates River.

Mihemed added that the Syrian regime bears responsibility for spreading the pandemic into the region for allowing several people to pass from Qamishli airport into administration territory without first being tested for the coronavirus.

Mihemed also called on organizations working with the United Nations to open corridors for providing medical support to populations in northeastern Syria including Syrian Kurdistan, known as Rojava.

“So far, only the Kurdistan Region supported Rojava and northern Syria with medical support,” he said.

However, two other parties have already stepped in to provide assistance to the self-administration.

Four PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) testing machines arrived in northeast Syria from the Kurdistan Region in recent weeks to help Syria’s Kurdish–led authorities test people for the highly-contagious disease.

Additionally, the US-led Coalition against the so-called Islamic State has provided $1.2 million in medical supplies and equipment to help protect staff at hospitals in Hasakah and Shaddadi, as well as to combat the virus more broadly.

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

The coronavirus has infected over 3.74 million people worldwide and killed more than 263,000, according to government-reported data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The actual figures could be dramatically higher due to insufficient testing capabilities or underreporting.

Editing by John J. Catherine