Zero cases and zero deaths. According to the Damascus authorities, Syria is currently spared the coronavirus epidemic. While all the states in the region are struggling with the disease, in particular Iran, where more than 16,000 infections and nearly 1,000 deaths have been recorded, the regime of Bashar Al-Assad ensures that the Covid-19 n still hasn't touched its territory.
According to the health ministry, of the 103 tests performed to date on patients with suspicious symptoms, none has been found to be positive. Statements relayed by the World Health Organization (WHO) office in Damascus, which praised the government for the preventive measures it has put in place. "The Syrian army has cleaned up many germs in Syria, there are no cases of coronavirus at the moment", said Minister of Health Nizar Yazigi, engulfed himself, establishing an implicit equivalence between the virus and the anti-Assad rebellion.
This very optimistic picture hardly convinces outside official circles. According to most independent observers, it is inconceivable that the country should not be affected, given the close ties with Iran, the main source of the virus's spread in the Middle East. In addition to thousands of militiamen, mobilized alongside the government forces, Tehran sends to Syria many groups of pilgrims, attracted by the Shiite sanctuary of Sayeda Zeinab, in the south of Damascus.
"In denial"
"How can we imagine that the coronavirus has not taken root when the Iranians keep coming and going in Syria? ", asks Samer Jabbour, a Syrian doctor and professor of public health at the American University of Beirut. "The Syrian authorities are in denial and the WHO is stuck, adds a Western diplomat who works on the Syrian file. His representative in Damascus knows full well that at the slightest statement contradicting the government's position, he is put on a plane. "
Difficult to verify allegations of rapid spread of the Covid-19 have been circulating in opposition circles for several days. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), which has a network of informants on the ground, has reported numerous cases of infection and several deaths in the governorates of Damascus, Tartus, Latakia and Homs. "Doctors have received strict silence instructions from the Syrian authorities", supports the NGO.
