(Zaman Al Wasl)- Sewing workshops in northern Syria have begun to make medical masks to provide the health facilities in the de-facto stricken areas due to regime offensive and now due to the killer Coronavirus.
Ahmed Abdul Rahman, an owner of a sewing workshop in Idlib province, said his workshop produces 10,000 masks per day depending on 55 workers.
"We import raw materials from Turkey but the prices are rising daily, it went from $2 to $5 per kilo. We are selling the box from $5.5 and up to $7, and the daily wages of the workers go from 3000 SYP to 7,000 SYP, depending on the production quantity," he added.
Nearly 803,000 people have now been confirmed with the coronavirus globally, and while at least 172,000 people have recovered from COVID-19, more than 39,000 have died, according to data from World Meters.
“After the virus has spread in Turkey and the demand for the masks has increased, we manufactured them in Idlib
The workshops are distributed maskes at reasonable prices within the liberated areas as the demand for masks by humanitarian organizations operating in Idlib and the countryside of Aleppo has also increased.
Northern Syria has not yet recorded any case of coronavirus infection, with awareness campaigns warning civilians to stay home and avoid gatherings, and the closure of all crossings with regime-held areas.
The regime offensive in Idlib province and parts of Aleppo has displaced more than 1,041000 people from their homes and killed 700 people, including 91 women, 212 children and 17 rescue workers, over the past three months, he Syrian Response Coordination Group said.
Medical staff on the ground have warned.At least 100,000 could die from the COVID-19 pandemic in northwest Syria as overcrowded camps and the decimated healthcare system make the country particularly vulnerable, according to euronews.
Since the conflict broke out in March 2011, more than half of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million have been driven from their home and 80% now live under the poverty line, according to the United Nations.
According to the World Health organisation (WHO), only 50% of public hospitals and 47% of public primary health care centres were fully functional in Syria at the end of 2019.
The country has for now confirmed only ten infection cases and two deaths of the virus but experts have cast doubts upon that figure with a policy memo released earlier this week by the London School of Economics flagging "significant indications that a wider outbreak has already begun."
According to euronews, the paper estimates that the maximum number of COVID-19 cases the country can "adequately" treat is 6,500 and that just half of the 650 intensive care (ICU) beds in public and private hospitals nationwide — excluding Idlib province — have ventilators.
Zaman A Wasl
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.