ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States on Sunday announced $4 million in funding to fight COVID-19 in northeast Syria (Rojava) as numbers of new cases spike across the country. The money is coming from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to meet “urgent COVID19 needs in northeast Syria. With these funds, the @USAID will increase access to medical supplies, rehabilitate health infrastructure, and improve health worker training,” tweeted the US embassy. The embassy office in Damascus has been closed since 2012 after the outbreak of civil war. There was no immediate statement from USAID, which is an independent agency that works in development assistance. The coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the country, suffering from a decade of civil war and damaged health infrastructure. Rojava authorities imposed a week-long full lockdown in eastern towns, taking effect on Saturday, after a recent increase of new infections. The region’s health board reported 340 news cases and four deaths on Monday, bringing the total number of cases to 27,017, including 903 deaths. The Syrian government recorded 393 new cases of the virus in regime-held areas and nine deaths on Sunday, making the total number of cases 32,873, with 2,207 deaths.
