“Salvation Government” makes a series of decisions as part of precautionary measures to fight Coronavirus

The general directorate of crossings of the “Salvation Government” issued a decision to close the border crossings, in addition to preventing the entry and exit of citizens from Tuesday, April 1, 2020. Humanitarian, private and commercial cases are exempted from this decision, at the discretion of those responsible for the crossings.

The “Salvation Government” called on local councils to ban markets, bazaars and human gatherings.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has suspended the private schools, institutes and kindergartens and those who will violate the decision will be hold accountable.

The areas controlled by opposition factions and jihadists in north-western Syria are suffering a severe shortage of medical equipment and insufficient measures to prevent the spread of Coronavirus pandemic in terms of the number of hospitals beds and medical facilities and clinics .

All the hospitals contain nearly 200 beds for intensive care, and just 95 ventilators for adults, while all this equipment is 100 per cent allocated for different diseases, and the number of hospital beds is 3,065, which means only one bed for every 1,592 citizens, which threatens to cause a real looming disaster if the novel Coronavirus pandemic spreads in those areas.

Although medical teams and organizations are working hard within their capacities, hospitals do not have sufficient medical staff and equipment to deal with this disaster that is sweeping the world.

An organization had provided three kits for PCR testing to the only epidemiological laboratory in Idlib city, which is only enough for 300 people, while Idlib city is home to nearly 4 million people.

Hospital and medical points have been suffering from a lack of medical support since the beginning of the recent military operations in Idlib. Most hospitals have been put out of service, while some have been brought under regime control. Hospitals on the border have remained intact in northern and western Idlib.

Therefore, we, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, call on all concerned humanitarian and medical organizations to provide aid and take all precautionary measures to prevent the spread of this epidemic in those areas, which are homes to more than four million civilians who have been forced to leave their areas by military operations and fled to small geographical area that lack the basic necessities of life.