(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian regime on Thursday said its confirmed Coronavirus cases rose to 16 from an earlier 10 cases as medics say there are many more.
The United Nations says the country is at high risk of a major outbreak because of a fragile health system devastated by a nine-year war and lack of sufficient equipment to detect the virus, alongside large numbers of vulnerable people.
The World Health Organisation has warned that the country has a limited capacity to deal with a rapid spread of the virus.
Bashar al-Assad's regime on Thursday has also sealed a major Shi'ite shrine that is a magnet for tens of thousands of Iranian pilgrims whom medics and the U.N. officials warned their congregation puts the country at risk of a major spread of coronavirus.
The move comes as the war-ravaged country steps up a lockdown to stem a major outbreak with a fragile health system and porous land borders with neighboring Iraq and air flights with Tehran that still brought until recently thousands of pilgrims.
Interior Minister Mohamad Rahmoun told state media the decision was taken to seal the crowded area to stem any possible outbreak.
"It has a large residential population," he said.
State media had earlier said that medics had quarantined a building in the heavily garrisoned Sayeda Zainab neighbourhood for suspected cases of the virus.
U.N. officials have warned that religious pilgrims and clerics who regularly cross Iran's frontiers to Iraq and then Syria where often border controls are weak put the country at high risk of a major outbreak.
Iran is the worst affected country in the region.
Syria said it has halted commercial flights at its airport and closed most its border crossings but Shia pilgrims mainly from Iran have continued to arrive in Syria by land in recent days to visit the shrine in Damascus, witnesses say.
Syrian officials deny a cover-up but have imposed a lockdown and draconian measures including a nationwide night curfew to stem the pandemic.
The moves to shut businesses, schools, universities, mosques and most government offices, as well as stop public transport, have spread fear among war-weary residents.
The regime also banned movement of people between governates. Security forces manned checkpoints around provincial cities and only allowed army vehicles and essential services to pass, witnesses said.
Several cities saw panic buying, with residents saying they saw food shortages and a surge in demand that pushed up prices ahead of the start of the curfew.
On Wednesday, the town of Tal Mnin northeast the capital was put under quarantine, following the first confirmed death due to COVID-19 in the town.
The army announced an end to a call-up of army reserves. It has already ended conscription in what military defectors said was an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus among the rank and file.
The Assad army also set up a quarantine center west of Homs, according to Zaman al-Wasl sources
Opposition figures and independent politicians point to Damascus' strong ties with Iran, the worst affected country in the region, as a source of possible contagion.
They say the virus is also being transmitted by members of Iranian-backed militias who are fighting alongside the Syrian army, as well as Shi'ite pilgrims who visit shrines in Syria.
(Zaman Al Wasl with Agencies)
Zaman Al Wasl
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