Amid damaged health infrastructure and massive displacement, aid agencies are moving to prevent a Coronavirus outbreak in conflict-plagued northwestern Syria.
Syria has not yet confirmed any Coronavirus cases but its “fragile health systems may not have the capacity to detect and respond” to an epidemic, Hedinn Halldorsson, a World Health Organization spokesman declared.
The risk of an outbreak is especially high and most alarming in Syria’s northwest, where some three million people are trapped in a shrinking rebel bastion battered by months of bombardment.
Medical facilities have been targeted during the latest bombing campaign, further reducing the capacity of a health system ravaged by nearly nine years of conflict.
Unable to provide services from government-held territory inside Syria, the WHO provides cross-border assistance to rebel-held Idlib via Turkey, Halldorsson said.
Health personnel are being trained, “and laboratories in both Idlib and Ankara are being prepared and stocked to safely test and diagnose the virus”, he added.
Many fear the fighting will eventually resume, in a further challenge to efforts to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak.
Misty Buswell of the International Rescue Committee said the situation in Idlib was “especially ripe for a spread” of the virus.
“An outbreak would be devastating for thousands whose health status is already compromised due to lack of sufficient food, clean water and exposure to cold weather,” she stated.
