First Covid-19 cases reported in displacement camp housing relatives of ISIS militants
Three healthcare workers helping people in a camp for displaced people in north-eastern Syria contracted coronavirus, the UN said on Thursday, the first reported infections in the vast tent city.
Al Hol camp is home to tens of thousands of people, including the relatives of ISIS militants.
It is run by the autonomous Kurdish administration that holds most of the north-east and has reported 54 cases of Covid-19 in the areas under its control.
“On August 3, three health workers reportedly tested positive for Covid-19 at Al Hol IDP camp,” said a spokesman for the UN Organisation for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
“The contact-tracing process is ongoing,” said David Swanson said.
“As a precautionary measure, only critical staff, with personal protective equipment, are allowed to operate inside the camp.”
A health official at the camp said the three infected staff work with the Kurdish Red Crescent in Al Hol.
“We fear that the virus could have spread to camp residents visiting health clinics,” the official said.
The latest infections raise to nine the number of Kurdish Red Crescent staff in north-eastern Syria who have contracted the virus, a volunteer at the organisation said.
Nine years of war have battered the healthcare system across Syria, but the situation in the north-east is particularly critical, because the Kurdish authorities have been left to cope with the coronavirus largely unaided.
This has raised fears that any outbreak could swiftly escalate into an epidemic gripping the entire Kurdish region.
As of Thursday, there were 999 confirmed infections and 48 deaths from Covid-19 in Syria.
The number of coronavirus cases involving health workers was a cited as an area of particular concern in the latest situation report issued by the World Health Organisation, the UN and other humanitarian partners on Wednesday.
Before the cases detected at Al Hol camp, the 44 among healthcare workers reported until July 24 accounted for eight per cent of all confirmed infections reported by the Syrian Health Ministry, an increase of 26 since the previous report.
Of these, 34 were in Damascus, six in Rural Damascus governorate, two in Aleppo governorate, and one each in Quneitra and Suweida governorates.
The report said this highlighted the risks faced by medical workers and underscored the potential for Syria’s fragile healthcare system, already short of qualified personnel, to become overstretched.
Local and aid officials in the north-east of Syria told The National earlier this year that the self-declared autonomous region was not receiving its share of international assistance sent to Damascus.
Medical assistance to the region has been severely affected by the closure of the Yarubiyah border crossing from Iraq in January.