Patrols by the police department in Jdaydet Artooz in the western Damascus countryside, accompanied by medical units from the Ministry of Health, have over the past two days carried out a campaign that has hit a number of homes in the town and taken eight residents to quarantine centers after they showed symptoms of the coronavirus.
Local sources told Sowt al-Asima that the patrols had taken one man who had been displaced from the city of Daraya and was living in al-Jalaa Street in the center of town, on Sunday, to a quarantine center after a doctor had submitted a report indicating he had been infected with the virus.
The sources added that on the same day, the patrols had taken two women from different areas, one of them Masaken Saraya al-Siraa , and another from the old town, near the Khadija mosque, after suspicions that they had been infected.
The sources said that the patrols had also taken a family of five from al-Jalaa Street near the al-Bahra roundabout at the city entrance on Wednesday night, to the quarantine center after showing signs that one had been infected.
A doctor in Jdaydet Artooz said that he had diagnosed other cases of people who had showed signs of the virus over the last two days and had advised them to go to the hospital to get medical analyses to discover if they had the virus, and said that they had refused to do this.
These people said they did not want to go to the government hospital out of fear that they would be infected if the tests were negative, because of the lack of quarantine methods. They also feared the treatment they would receive from security forces there, the doctor said.
In Harasta, medical teams from the Health Ministry have over the past two days carried out medical quarantine of an entire family, the Shulla family, days after they entered Syria, coming from Lebanon illegally because the official border between the countries is closed.
Sowt al-Asima’s correspondent in Harasta said that cars from the Health Ministry and another from the Red Crescent had transported and entire family to quarantine after confirming a woman from the family had contracted the coronavirus.
The correspondent quoted residents in the Samsam district, where the family lives, as saying that residents are afraid of the virus spreading to them—especially those who mixed with the family after their return, given the deteriorating medical situation in Harasta and it being closed off from Damascus, which could delay the discovery of the disease if anyone contracts it.
The Sowt al-Asima website, in a report on Saturday, documented a man and his wife from the town of Masarba going into quarantine after he also returned from Lebanon.
A Syrian regime fighters from Douma was infected with the coronavirus last week and was quarantined with his wife in the government centers.
Sowt al-Asima quoted local sources in al-Tall as saying that a member of the Air Force Intelligence had contracted the virus, which was transferred to his wife as well, after mixing with Iranian and Iraqi fighters in Sayeda Zeinab in southern Damascus when he was sent on a mission.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
