North & East Syria Coronavirus Update
Coronavirus cases in North and East Syria (NES) rising rapidly following new outbreak at end of July.
Despite having experienced a limited number of corona cases (5 cases and 1 death) up to the beginning of July, the situation remained stable until the very end of July and beginning of August when the numbers quickly spiked, going from 11 on 29 July to 28 on the 30 July, and reaching 78 confirmed cases a week later on 6 August. Since then the numbers of cases has been rising exponentially. A high-risk group in NES are the health workers, who also play a key role in transmitting the disease. As of 9 August, at least 15 of the confirmed cases were health workers, particularly in the Heseke Military Hospital which is a key epicenter, with the majority of confirmed cases of health workers being in this hospital, plus Heseke National hospital. Health services have been reduced or shut down, and movement of health staff has been limited, creating knock-on effects for health service delivery.
RIC Coronavirus Update 15.08.2020