DAMASC, Syria – Syrian President Bashar Assad and his wife have tested positive for coronavirus, the president’s office said Monday, with both with mild symptoms of the disease.
In a statement, Assad’s office said the first couple underwent PCR tests after experiencing minor symptoms consistent with COVID-19 disease. Assad, 55, and his wife Asma, who is 10 years younger and announced her recovery from breast cancer in 2019, were said to continue working from home where they will be isolated for two to three weeks.
Both were in “good health and in stable condition,” he added.
Syria, which celebrates ten years of war next week, has recorded nearly 16,000 cases of viruses in parts of the country’s government, including 1,063 dead. But the figures are believed to be much higher, as limited amounts of PCR testing are conducted, especially in areas of northern Syria beyond government control.
The pandemic, which has severely affected even developed countries, has been a major challenge for Syria’s health sector, already exhausted by years of conflict.
Syria launched a vaccination campaign last week amid a growing number of infection cases, but no details have been given about the process nor have local journalists been allowed to witness the deployment. The health minister said the government acquired the vaccines from a friendly country, which it refused to name.
The announcement came days after international and Israeli media revealed that Israel paid Russia $ 1.2 million to provide the Syrian government with coronavirus vaccines. According to reports, she was part of a deal that resulted in the release of an Israeli woman detained in Damascus. The terms of the clandestine compromise negotiated by Moscow remained murky. Damascus denied it happened and Russia made no comment.
Israeli control of Syria’s vaccination efforts would be a disgrace to the Assad government, which considers Israel its main regional enemy.
It was not immediately clear whether Assad, who has been in power since taking over from his late father in 2000, or any of his relatives, has been vaccinated.
Syria has been embroiled in civil war for the past ten years since anti-government protests that began as part of the Arab Spring uprisings turned into an insurgency in response to military repression. A decade of fighting has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.