Syria's divisions damage efforts to mobilize against virus

The territory has been cut off from outside aid, including U.N. shipments that used to arrive from Iraq but were vetoed by Syrian government ally Russia.In the last opposition-held enclave in Syria’s northwest, health officials are cobbling together what little they have to protect 4 million people crammed into a territory buckling under repeated government offensives. He said that working with a government that often distributes aid based on political considerations “could be questionable when you have a population that is completely dependent on you and cross-border assistance.”Syrian authorities have conducted coronavirus tests only in Damascus’ central lab, making it hard to track infections. So imagine a region that has faced a destructive war for nine years,” said Ciwan Mustafa, northeast’s health director.Hundreds of medical facilities have been bombed, mostly in government airstrikes; half the hospitals and health centers are functioning only partially or not at all, while 70% of the medical personnel have fled the country. It is setting up testing labs in the regions of Aleppo, Homs and Latakia.Abid cited global shortages when asked about the obstacles to aid reaching non-governmental areas, adding that such deliveries require government permission.Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Syria researcher, said that since the uprising began in 2011, Damascus has had a policy of denying aid to rebel-held areas and to the Kurdish-run northeast, in hopes of weakening the population there.A 2013 polio outbreak was partially blamed on the government denying vaccinations to areas outside its control.