Healthcare workers in Syria’s last rebel-held province are bracing for fresh disaster after the overcrowded and poverty-stricken area confirmed its first case of Covid-19.
A doctor in his 30s working at Bab al-Hawa hospital in Idlib near the Turkish border asked to be tested after displaying symptoms, the local health authority said in a statement on Thursday evening.
His role as a healthcare worker means he is almost certainly not the only case. For now the doctor and those who have come into contact with him have been tested and are in self-isolation and the hospital has been temporarily closed.
Idlib’s 3-million-strong population has been dreading a seemingly inevitable outbreak of the coronavirus in a city where 1.1m people are currently living in tents and makeshift accommodation and the healthcare system has been decimated by years of war and bombing campaigns carried out by Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies. Malnutrition and other diseases are already rife.
There is only one polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing machine in the entire area, purchased by a local NGO. The World Health Organization has not sent any machines to Idlib or the Kurdish-held north-east, and only five to regime-controlled Syria.
A total of 153 ventilators and 148 beds in intensive care units are available for coronavirus patients across Idlib, which aid agencies have warned leaves the area desperately ill-prepared.
Government areas of Syria have reported 372 coronavirus cases and 14 deaths, and the UN has detected six cases and one death in the north-east. Experts have warned for months that the true figures across the country are probably much higher.
“A wider Covid-19 outbreak would see families [in Idlib] who are already fighting for survival – many without clean water or nutritious food – battle this highly infectious disease in overcrowded camps and shelters,” said Sonia Khush, Save the Children’s Syria director.
“Now more than ever, guns need to remain silent, the ceasefire needs to hold and all efforts have to be geared towards the aid and health response.”
Over the course of Syria’s war, Idlib has become the last refuge of opposition fighters and civilians who have fled Assad’s advance.
Rebel infighting has led to the emergence of extremist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as Idlib’s dominant force. In March, the area was spared from a brutal regime offensive after a ceasefire was brokered by Russia and Turkey, which supports some rebel groups.
The miserable situation in Idlib and the surrounding countryside may be compounded after a UN security council vote on Friday over continuing the delivery of humanitarian aid from two border crossings from Turkey.
On Thursday Russia introduced a rival draft resolution which would authorise just one border crossing instead of two for the next year, effectively cutting off around 300,000 people trapped by frontlines from receiving UN aid.
Russia and China have repeatedly used their vetoes as permanent members of the security council to stymie aid to areas outside of Assad’s control.
Also on Thursday, the UN counterterrorism chief said his office received information that 700 people have recently died in two overcrowded and disease-ridden camps in north-east Syria that are home to around 70,000 women and children with connections to Islamic State.
Lack of food and medicine and outbreaks of tuberculosis had contributed to the dramatic mortality rates, Vladimir Voronkov said, creating ripe conditions for continued radicalisation.
source https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/10/idlib-reports-first-covid-19-case-and-braces-for-fresh-disaster-syria
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