The Ministry of Health in the Syrian opposition's self-styled interim government announced July 10, 2020, the first COVID-19 case in northern Syria — a doctor who had recently returned from Turkish territory. After symptoms appeared, he isolated himself in Bab al-Hawa Hospital on the Turkish-Syrian border. The Ministry of Healthy then called for an emergency meeting of the coronavirus crisis unit in order to activate the emergency plan in the area.

In late 2020, the opposition’s Ministry of Health submitted an official request to the COVAX Initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine and distribute it to the residents of northwestern Syria. As the region is expected to receive vaccines in late March, the concerned parties — namely WHO, UNICEF and the Syria vaccination team — are coordinating methods and drawing up plans to vaccinate residents while waiting for final approval from the COVAX platform.

Maram al-Sheikh Mustafa, minister of health in the opposition's self-styled interim government, told Al-Monitor, “The WHO has agreed to initially grant us 1.7 million doses of the British AstraZeneca vaccine to cover 850,000 people. The vaccination process will be divided into three stages: The first will be implemented in 2021, and it should cover 20% of the entire population of the area, estimated at 4.2 million people. This stage targets medical workers, people with chronic diseases and the elderly over 60 years old.”

He said, “The first batch of vaccine doses — amounting to 134,000 doses intended for 60,000 people — is expected to arrive late March. We will first target the health sector employees and humanitarian workers who are more likely to contract the virus. Since the outbreak, 10 front-line workers have died, eight of whom are doctors, one nurse and one laboratory technician. They were among the 2,713 front-line workers who had tested positive in the area.”