Press release
Syrian Opposition Coalition – Syria
Department of Media and Communications
August 18, 2020
The deaths of a large number of doctors in the line of duty while battling the coronavirus pandemic in the regime-held areas is a dangerous indicator that raises many questions. The regime’s denial and lack of transparency in dealing with this catastrophic situation is mainly to blame for the country’s devastation.
Deaths among the medial staff have a catastrophic dimension as this amounts to elimination of medical personnel in continuation of the regime’s systematic targeting and destroying of health sector, leaving the Syrian people without access to medical care. These policies risk leading to the inevitable collapse of the health sector and aggravating the scale of the disaster.
At least 60 doctors have so far reportedly died in the regime-held areas amid total lack of any measures to confront the pandemic, which has begun to turn into a major disaster.
The Syrian Opposition Coalition stresses that the Assad regime’s policies in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic constitute a crime against the Syrian people. In addition to the crimes of bombardment, destruction, mass forced displacement and arrest, the regime’s insistence on rejecting a political solution and refusal to abide by international resolutions has plunged the country into an unprecedented humanitarian, political, social, and health disaster.
