North and East Syria extending curfew, moving education online due to coronavirus
RAQQA, Syria – The Co-Presidency of the Democratic Autonomous Administration (DAA) in North and East Syria held a press conference on Monday in the city of Raqqa to inform the public about its ongoing steps to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19.
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In light of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in all parts of the world, the Democratic Autonomous Administration had to take a number of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus to the regions of North and East Syria. One of the measures was the decision of closing the Semalka border crossing and all the DAA surrounding border crossings. In addition to suspending schools and universities and preventing social gatherings and celebrations. The third decision was forming the Crisis Cell and imposing a curfew in all the DAA areas. In addition to the comprehensive sterilization campaign carried out by the autonomous and civil administrations as well as preparing equipped quarantine centers with modest capabilities in the health sector.
The DAA also distributed food baskets to continuously help the needy families throughout the curfew, as well as exempting all citizens from paying the bills of water, electricity and cleaning for its third session (May 2020- June 2020). The DAA also suspended the military service (Self-defense duty) for the next three months, in addition to extending the curfew until 21 April 2020.
The Education Body has also started on-line teaching lessons until the return of students to school.
The financial capabilities of the DAA are modest due to the terrorism that the region has been subjected to. Therefore, we call on the international coalition countries, the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO) and international organizations to provide the necessary medical and health equipment to help curb the spread of coronavirus epidemic due to the large number of displaced families in the camps and the poor humanitarian conditions in which they live.
In conclusion, we confirm that our region does not have any coronavirus infection so far.
We all hope that we will overcome this crisis, God willing.
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