Rojava officials confirm first COVID-19 death

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdish authorities in Syria’s northern city of Qamishli on Friday confirmed Rojava’s first COVID-19 death.

A 53-year-old man from Hasaka became the first person in northeast Syria’s to die from COVID-19, health authorities of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) said in a statement.

The man, who has not been named, was admitted to a private hospital before being transferred to the national hospital in Qamishli on March 27. He was placed on a respirator and a sample was sent for testing to Damascus on March 29, but the man died on April 2. 

However, the hospital’s manager denies there have been any COVID-19 fatalities at the facility.

“We are sending samples of many cases suspected of being infected with the virus to the central laboratory in Damascus, and we have not been informed of the existence of any positive sample until now,” Dr. Omar al-Akoub told Rudaw English. 

Syria has 33 confirmed COVID-19 cases and two deaths, according to data collected by John Hopkins University from World Health Organization (WHO) partners.

The statement also accused the WHO of failing to inform the NES when it learned of the man’s test result, which was among six cases announced by the Syrian health ministry on April 2.

The Syrian health ministry reported the first official case of COVID-19 infection in the country on March 22 and the first death on March 30, but the man’s case is the first known infection in the Kurdish-controlled northeast.

Speaking to Rudaw English, NES officials have said that the region had little capacity to handle a possible outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

The self-administration has imposed quarantine measures in the region in the hopes of preventing the virus taking hold in the population, including in displacement camps and prisons that are holding thousands of suspected Islamic State (ISIS) members and their children in extremely close quarters.

Earlier this week, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq facilitated the delivery of two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machines needed to test samples for the virus, but supplies of critical personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators are still lacking, Raparin Hassan, co-chair of the NES health board, told Rudaw English.

The WHO also recently said it airlifted a 20-ton medical shipment to Qamishli, which a spokesperson said would be distributed to a number of hospitals in the area controlled by the self-administration, as well as regime areas.

Without supplies of lifesaving equipment directly from the WHO or the US-led Coalition against ISIS, the NES is dependent on the Syrian regime for supplies and has scarce capacity for testing samples.

Most of the COVID-19 tests for northeast Syria are necessarily carried out at the single central public health laboratory in Damascus. Hassan said four additional machines had been promised, which would allow the NES be operate without the help of Damascus.

A spokesperson for the WHO previously told Rudaw English that all parties to the Syrian conflict, including the Kurdish authority, had agreed to the testing protocol, but the NES has repeatedly said it needs the assistance of the international community to contain the threat of coronavirus.

Editing by Shawn Carrié and Rob Edwards

Translation by Lawk Ghafuri and Shawn Carrié

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