Two confirmed deaths in Daraa due to COVID-19

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least two deaths due to COVID-19 have been confirmed by residents in the southern Daraa province as the Syrian regime still denying the spread of the killer pandemic.

Health officials claimed that a man and a women were died of pneumonia, refusing to let their families burying them or even make a funeral.

But sources from in the Busra al-Sham hospital have confirmed that the death reason was due to COVID-19.

The regime authorities have put 29 people in quarantine in the Kherbet Ghazaleh town after retuning back from Lebanon.

The number of infections in Syria is nine and one death case confirmed, according to the regime official statements but the World Health Organization sees Syria at high risk from the virus.

Nearly 680,000 people have now been confirmed with the coronavirus globally, and while at least 164,000 people have recovered from COVID-19, more than 31,900 have died, according to data from World Meters.

Last week, Syria's Health Minister Nizar Yazigi said an entry ban an announced followed the closure of schools, parks, restaurants and various public institutions and a health hotline is being launched.

In the opposition-held northwest, rescue workers whose usual role is to respond to government bombardments have been sanitizing classrooms. Medics in the northwest fear the virus would spread very quickly in crowded camps for the displaced.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were a total of 494 attacks against health facilities in Syria between 2016 and 2019. Almost 70% - 337 attacks - occurred in the northwest of the country, where Idlib is located.

Most of the hospitals still operating are unable to meet existing needs, much less a possible COVID-19 pandemic, DW reported.

Meanwhile, Syrian activists and former detainees have called on the Syrian regime to release the inmates to protect them against the virus.

Most of the opposition detainees are held in the notorious Sednaya Military Prison in miserable conditions.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights recorded that at least 1.2 million Syrian citizens were subjected to arrest and torture, but approximately 147,000 people are still under arbitrary detention or enforced disappearance and torture.

Zaman A Wasl