In Syria, the extent of the Covid-19 pandemic remains a big unknown
New cases of Covid are on the rise as the health system is on the ground after 10 years of war.
AFP - DELIL SOULEIMAN
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
How big is the pandemic in Syria?
Difficult to provide a clear answer in a country at war and which lives under the thumb of Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian leader, who has long played down the Covid-19 pandemic, is said to have contracted the virus last week.
The only certainty: new cases of Covid are multiplying, while the health system is on the ground after 10 years of conflict.
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With our correspondent in Geneva,
Jérémie Lanche
Officially, Syria has only recorded 46,000 Covid-19 contaminations for around 2,000 deaths in one year.
A figure largely underestimated, by the admission of the WHO representative on the spot, Dr. Akjemal Mgtymova.
“
The virus does not behave differently in Syria,
” she says.
In Damascus, there are no longer any intensive care beds.
The number of new Covid cases has increased by 42% in one week.
This is proof that the epidemic is progressing rapidly.
"
The situation is particularly dire in the rebel-controlled northwest.
The few hospitals that could treat Covid patients are being targeted by the regime.
Six people died on Sunday in the
bombing of a hospital
near Aleppo.
Mahmoud Daher is the head of the WHO office on the Turkish-Syrian border: “
Each month, this hospital provided 5,700 consultations, 375 admissions and 160 major surgical operations to the population of the region,” he
explains.
He is now completely shut down and staff and patients have had to evacuate him
”.
Syria is expected to receive more than a million doses of vaccine through
the WHO
Covax program
.
Insufficient to vaccinate an estimated population of nearly 20 million people.
►
To read also: After ten years of war in Syria, Bashar al-Assad reigns over ruins
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Syria
Coronavirus
Health and medicine