AP — Intensive care units in public hospitals in the Syrian capital Damascus have reached full capacity due to a sharp rise of coronavirus infections, leading doctors to transfer patients to hospitals in other provinces, the health ministry said late Thursday.
The announcement was a rare public acknowledgment of the severity of the outbreak in Syria, which has been ravaged by a decade of conflict that had major effects on the medical sector.
Syria has reported a rise in infections in recent weeks that included President Bashar Assad and his wife Asma who are currently recovering, according to the president’s office.
Syria reported 149 new cases on Thursday, raising the total of registered infections in the country to 16,925, including 1,130 deaths since the first case was reported in March last year.
