Fears rise for rebel enclave

Hospitals in Syria’s overcrowded oppositionheld enclave are suspending nonemergency procedures and outpatient services following the detection of the first case of coronavirus.

The regional education department also announced it was closing all schools.

The first case of COVID19, a doctor in the area, was reported on Thursday in Idlib province, the last oppositionheld part of Syria in a sliver of land bordering Turkey. The doctor was isolated and the hospital he worked in was shut down.

There have been major concerns of an outbreak in northwestern Syria, an area packed with more than 3 million people, many of them living in tents and encampments, and where health facilities have been devastated by Syria’s long civil war.

Munzer Khalil, the head of the Idlib health directorate, said Friday that the measures to suspend nonemergency procedures and reduce services were taken to raise the medical staff ’s level of readiness and emphasize to the public how serious the matter is. The measures will last at least a week.