Ravaged by war, Syrian rebel area struggles with virus surge

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Coronavirus cases are surging to the worst levels of the pandemic in a rebel stronghold in Syria. That’s a particularly devastating development in a region where scores of hospitals have been bombed and that doctors and nurses have fled in droves during a decade of war. The total number of cases seen in Idlib province has more than doubled since the beginning of August to more than 61,000. In recent weeks, daily new infections have repeatedly shot past 1,500, and authorities reported 34 deaths on Sunday alone. Those figures are still believed to be undercounts. Idlib faces all the challenges that places the world over have during the pandemic. But extreme poverty and the ravages of Syria’s civil war have made the situation in Idlib uniquely terrible.