Thousands of people infected with Covid-19 in Syria are treating themselves at home amid difficult conditions caused by the lack of medicine, electricity, and even water during the summer heat.
As the Ministry of Health in Damascus continues to struggle in the face of the rapid spread of the coronavirus, Syrians are mourning dozens of people every day without announcing the cause of death.
Official figures on the number of infections seem far from reality. During the past two days, the Ministry of Health said that only 15 infections were recorded in Aleppo, eight in Homs, seven in Tartous and Hama, and five infections in each of Damascus, Rif Dimashq and Quneitra. It also noted that 13 recovery cases were recorded in Damascus and its countryside against two deaths, one in Homs and the other in Tartous.
In a statement earlier this week, the Doctors’ Syndicate in Damascus announced the death of three doctors after they came into contact with people infected with the coronavirus, bringing the number of medics who died in Damascus as a result of Covid-19 to ten within two weeks.
Meanwhile, dozens of obituaries are plastered every day on the walls of streets in Damascus for people who died from the pandemic, most of them elderly.
A university professor in Damascus, who is infected with the coronavirus told Asharq Al-Awsat in a phone conversation that she and three of her brothers were being treated at home under the supervision of doctors over the phone.
She confirmed that they did not perform a PCR test, but rather that they were diagnosed in a clinic. She also said that about ten of her colleagues with Covid-19 were receiving treatment at home, except for one case, who was hospitalized and passed away on Thursday.
