Syria announces measures against coronavirus

TEHRAN — Iran said Saturday the coronavirus outbreak has killed another 97 people, pushing the death toll in the country to 611. Meanwhile Tehran's ally, the Assad regime in war-ravaged Syria, announced a number of strict measures despite saying it has no confirmed cases.

Iran is suffering from the worst outbreak in the Middle East, with 12,729 cases and even senior officials testing positive. It is a close ally of the Syrian government in the civil war, with military advisors as well as Shiite pilgrims frequently traveling between the two countries.

Syria is just one of three countries in the Middle East that have yet to announce a confirmed case along with Libya and Yemen. All three could face daunting challenges containing an outbreak amid health systems ravaged by years of war.

There are concerns that the number of infections in Iran is much higher than the confirmed cases reported by the government, with some Iranian lawmakers having questioned the official toll. Syrians are also questioning the likelihood that no coronavirus cases exist in their country, despite the presence of thousands of foreign fighters and depleted infrastructure after nine years of war.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said Syrian doctors had detected cases of the virus in Damascus and at least three other provinces but were under orders to keep quiet; but Education Minister Imad al-Azab denied the claims.

"There are some saying that there are infections being hidden, but no government nor the ministry of health can cover up a disease," said Azab. "If a disease is somewhere it wants to spread, so it's very hard to hide it."

Syrian health minister Nizar Yazigi, speaking to state television on Friday, said there were no coronavirus cases in the country. He also drew criticism for linking the global pandemic to the war in Syria, saying the Syrian Army purged "many germs" in reference to rebels and members of the Syrian opposition killed by the Assad regime in the conflict.

Pakistani health officials said on Tuesday that at least five of their country's cases originated from patients travelling to Pakistan from Syria via Qatar. It was not immediately clear whether the infections could have originated from Doha, where cases have risen to 337, the highest among Gulf Arab states.

Despite denying that the virus has reached Syria, the government announced a series of precautionary measures. Addressing a news conference on Saturday, Azab said schools would be shut until April 2 while Syria monitors for the virus, repeating that it was "not possible" for the government to hide cases as some have claimed.

Following a Cabinet meeting Friday evening, the government also said it was reducing working hours in public institutions and canceling all cultural and sporting events, and all other events involving large gatherings, for the time being.

Syria also says it has taken preventive measures at all ports and border crossings. It has suspended travel with neighboring countries Iraq and Jordan, and it has halted religious tourism for a month.

Even in the tenth year of its devastating civil war, Syria has continued to receive large numbers of pilgrims from Iran, Iraq and neighboring Lebanon. They particularly visit the shrine of Sayida Zaynab, the prophet Muhammad’s granddaughter, in a suburb of the capital Damascus.

The spread of the coronavirus poses a huge risk to Syria. The war has destroyed infrastructure and crucial sectors of the economy, including the oil industry. People in government-controlled areas may be slightly better off than in other war-ravaged areas of the country, but international sanctions on the Syrian government, as well as a collapse in the Syrian currency, have left most of the country severely lacking in its medical infrastructure.

The Syrian conflict is the "worst man-made disaster since World War II," the United Nations human rights chief declared in 2017. The war has destroyed the economy and caused more than 11 million Syrians to flee their homes. The virus is an even more potent threat to those millions of Syrians who have been displaced by war, both inside Syria itself and within refugee camps in neighbouring states.

After recent government advances, Idlib province in the northeast is the last battleground between government forces - which now control roughly 70% of the country - and rebel groups. NGOs continue to denounce human rights abuses by the Syrian government, including lethal chemical attacks, torture and arbitrary arrest. 

They say tens of thousands of people have been subject to forced disappearances by the government, or a myriad of armed groups.