Syria suffers from a lack of PCR tests for the coronavirus, making it impossible to ascertain the actual number of cases in the country, the president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Khaled Hboubati, said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th March, 2021) Syria suffers from a lack of PCR tests for the coronavirus, making it impossible to ascertain the actual number of cases in the country, the president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Khaled Hboubati, said on Thursday.
"Since the beginning of the crisis of COVID-19, it has not been possible for Syria to test everybody with PCR tests. There is a total shortage of PCR kits, we do not get enough kits. So what is available everywhere in the world is unfortunately not available in Syria. There are infections, but we cannot know without the PCR tests if it's a flu or pneumonia or COVID-19, so we cannot really know the exact number of contagions," Hboubati said at a briefing.
Syria has been engulfed in a protracted civil war since 2011, with the Syrian government's forces fighting against various insurgent groups, like Islamic State (a terrorist group, banned in Russia). This severely undermined its civilian infrastructure making it especially ill-equipped to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
