A health worker measures the body temperature of a man before he enters Umayyad Mosque in the old city of Damascus, Syria, on May 22, 2020. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua)
"While (COVID-19) cases across Syria remain relatively low, the overall risk remains very high especially in areas such as the northwest where there are large displaced populations," said a UN spokesman.
UNITED NATIONS, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The first case of a COVID-19 patient has been confirmed in northwest Syria, a UN spokesman said on Friday of the war-weary area crowded with 2.7 million displaced persons.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported the patient was confirmed with the disease on Monday, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The patient, who was not identified, has been in isolation at the Bab al-Hawa hospital in northern Idlib Governorate since showing symptoms on July 5, OCHA said. Contact tracing was activated following test results to find additional possible patients.
"While cases across Syria remain relatively low, the overall risk remains very high especially in areas such as the northwest where there are large displaced populations," Dujarric said.
The OCHA reported last month that of the 4.1 million people in northwest Syria, 2.8 million people were in need of relief and 2.7 million were internally displaced. ■