Syria has so far dodged the novel coronavirus, but any infectious outbreak could potentially be taxing on its public health system, already weakened by nine years of conflict, and especially threatening to its internally displaced population.
Syrian Minister of Health Nizar Yazigi said on Tuesday the country is free of coronavirus.
Laboratory tests on a suspected case at the Al-Mouwasat University Hospital in the capital Damascus came back negative, he told local media, adding that the female patient was diagnosed with a bacterial lung infection.
Forty suspected cases have been tested so far in Syria, all with negative results, state news agency SANA quoted the director of public laboratories at the Ministry of Health as saying.
Syria is one of a handful of countries to have escaped the novel coronavirus as the outbreak spreads across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
In nearby Lebanon, 41 cases have been confirmed as of Tuesday with the country recording its first COVID-19 death on the same day. Iraq, which borders Syria from the east, has reported 61 cases, while Jordan, to the south of Syria, has detected just one infection.
The novel coronavirus has infected more than 113,700 people and killed over 4,000 worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The virus has been detected in 109 countries, territories and areas outside China.
The Syrian minister said "precautions and necessary measures have been taken at all border crossings" since news of the outbreak first surfaced in China.
The country says it is implementing screenings at air, sea and land border checkpoints and is now imposing a 14-day quarantine on all arrivals from coronavirus-hit countries. On Sunday, it announced the suspension of travel to and from Iraq and Jordan for one month, and with other coronavirus-stricken countries for two months.
A viral outbreak in Syria could have serious consequences as years of conflict have strained the country's health care system, once one of the best in the Middle East.
The situation in Syria could spell trouble in case of a public health emergency, according to the 2019 Global Health Security (GHS) Index. The project, over two years in the making, assessed the health security of 195 countries to see how ready they are for disease outbreaks.
Syria was found to be one of the least prepared countries, ranking eighth to last with 19.9 out of a possible overall score of 100. "Venezuela and Syria were particular cases, because these countries' political and health systems are in turmoil owing to ongoing conflict," wrote the researchers.
The GHS Index was developed by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the John Hopkins Center for Health Security, and The Economist Intelligence Unit.
Syrians refugees and the country's internally displaced population are also at risk amid the global spread of the new coronavirus.
The protracted conflict has forced over 5.6 million people to flee the country and more than 6.1 million others to seek refuge in other parts of Syria since 2011, sparking one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today.
Camps hosting them are typically crowded and access to clean water, hygiene services and medical help is hard, making the settlements and their inhabitants – especially the elderly – vulnerable to the epidemic.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday appealed for 33 million U.S. dollars to fund prevention and response measures as it tries to secure the public health needs of refugees around the world.
The UN agency said 34 coronavirus-hit countries house refugee populations of over 20,000 people. However, they've been unaffected by the virus so far.
"To date and based on available evidence, there have been no reports of COVID-19 infections among refugees and asylum seekers," said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
"Everyone on this planet – including refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people – should be able to access health facilities and services."
(Cover image: A Syrian commercial plane carrying Syrian officials and journalists lands at Aleppo Airport on February 19, 2020, marking the resumption of internal flights between Syria's two largest cities for the first time since 2012. /SANA via AP)