Syrian government lifts nightly curfew despite uptick in coronavirus cases
The Syrian Ministry of Health has registered 121 coronavirus cases and a death toll of four in areas under regime control.
The Syrian government will do away with the overnight curfew imposed in March despite a surge in reported cases of the coronavirus.
The Syrian Ministry of Health today announced 15 new COVID-19 cases in areas under government control, bringing the total number of cases to 121 and a death toll of four. All of the new cases were among Syrians returning from abroad, including nine from Kuwait. Experts have questioned the regime’s relatively low numbers, but Damascus has denied all charges of a cover-up.
Outside of government-controlled territory, six coronavirus cases, including one death, have been confirmed by officials conducting their own testing in northeast Syria. So far, no cases have been reported in the rebel-held northwest, where testing is extremely limited.
President Bashar al-Assad’s government is trying to ease the pain coronavirus restrictions have inflicted on the economy, already under strain from Western sanctions and nine years of war. The Syrian pound fell to a record low earlier this month.
