Turkey relocating coronavirus patients to Rish Ayno Hospital in North and East Syria

IDLIB and RISH AYNO (RAS AL-AYN), Syria / GAZIANTEP, Turkey – On Thursday, the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in Bab al-Hawa Hospital in Idlib, which is under the control of Turkish forces and suffers from a lack of health services.

According to sources of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the hospital was completely closed and employees and patients inside the hospital quarantined. It is still unknown if there are cases in the city itself.

SOHR also reported that Turkish forces are transporting people infected with coronavirus from Turkey to Rish Ayno (Ras al-Ayn) National Hospital, to be quarantined there.

At least three cars entered the occupied city carrying coronavirus patients.

The hospital is reportedly heavily guarded with Turkish soldiers guarding the main gate and Turkish intelligence agents and staff operating out of the hospital on a permanent basis.

In related news, the Turkish opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) warned that the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in Gaziantep in southern Turkey is almost out of control, pointing to the fullness of intensive care wards and the inability of hospitals to receive more coronavirus infected people.

Last month, Gaziantep had the third highest infection rate in the country.

Wednesday evening, the Turkish Ministry of Health recorded approximately 209,000 total confirmed coronavirus cases with an official death tally of 5,000.