MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th March, 2020) The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is taking action to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in Syria's Al-Hawl refugee camp and stands ready to extend the effort to the rest of the war-torn country, a spokeswoman for the health charity told Sputnik on Monday.
On Sunday, Syria registered its first coronavirus infection case. The patient was reportedly a citizen who had recently arrived from abroad.
"In Al Hol Camp, our field hospital remains operational and our team has started to take all necessary and preventive measures to protect the patients, and also themselves, against any spread of the virus," ICRC North Africa and middle East communications chief Ruth Hetherington said.
The notorious camp in northern Syria has been holding tens of thousands of jihadist fighters' relatives in crammed conditions, with little access to adequate medical care and sanitation, which makes them particularly vulnerable to health complications.
Camp authorities have already put movement restrictions and other measures in place to prevent refugees from gathering, which are having an impact on the ICRC's efforts to restore family links, she added.
ICRC is in close contact with the international health organizations and Syrian health authorities and has a stock of supplies on the ground to help the Syrian Arab Red Crescent disinfect public places and provide protective gear to the medical staff and volunteers elsewhere in the country.
Hetherington said that Syria's health system was in tatters after more than nine years of war and that the potential impact of a viral outbreak on it was "extremely worrying" because a weakened health system impaired the capacity for detection, management and the follow-up of cases, increasing the risk of transmission.
"The ICRC is ... ready to provide possible support to quarantine / emergency centers to help assure availability of essential services (water, sewage, shelter, conditions) as well as possible support on a variety of preventive measures against COVID-19," she said.
The health official stressed that, although the world's capacity to respond to the viral outbreak in the "remotest and neediest of places" was overwhelmed, the impact of COVID-19 on Syria did not have to be catastrophic as long as the international community was ready to scale up its support.
