Syria’s President Assad and his wife have both tested positive for Covid-19 and are showing mild symptoms
- Syrian leader, 55, and his wife Asma, 45, have both tested positive for the virus
- Assad joins leaders including Trump, Johnson and Macron who have had Covid
- Syria has officially seen 16,000 cases but true figures are likely to be far higher
Syria‘s president Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma have tested positive for Covid-19 after showing mild symptoms, authorities said today.
Assad’s office said the president, 55, and his wife, 45, were in good health and would continue to work while in isolation at home.
It makes him the latest in a lengthening line of world leaders to be infected with the virus after Boris Johnson and Donald Trump were both hospitalised with Covid-19 and others including Emmanuel Macron and Jair Bolsonaro had milder cases.
Syria has officially seen around 16,000 cases and 1,000 deaths, but the true numbers are likely to be far higher because the country’s dire economic situation means testing is scarce and lockdown options are limited.
Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma, pictured voting in parliamentary elections in Damascus last year, have tested positive for Covid-19
A member of Syria’s coronavirus advisory committee said last week that Syria had seen a sharp rise in virus infections since mid-February.
‘Starting February 10th or around that time we started seeing a spike in cases,’ Dr Nabough al-Awa said, adding that he was seeing more patients in his clinic.
Another relief worker said the number of people seeking oxygen tanks had spiked around the beginning of March, but said it was now stabilising again.
The government imposed a nationwide curfew when the pandemic first hit last year but restaurants, shops and schools re-opened from May onwards.
Mask-wearing is required in government offices and on crowded public transport, while several schools in Damascus have had to shut classrooms recently.
Remote learning and working from home are particularly difficult in a war-torn country where electricity supply and internet access are not stable.
In addition, many schools do not have access to functional bathrooms or supplies of soap and hand sanitiser, which could reduce the risk of infections.