The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES), also known as Rojava, ordered the borders closed to all but humanitarian traffic, which must enter a 14-day quarantine period, according to a statement from the NES.
Under the new rules, the bodies of persons who died of coronavirus outside of Rojava will not be repatriated. Previously, authorities were carrying out burials in an area near the border.
Collective prayers at mosques are banned and restaurants can serve food only through deliveries. There is no general lockdown, however.
The new rules come a day after four new cases were recorded in Rojava and three months after the first two cases were reported. The semi-autonomous region now has a total of six confirmed cases.
The measures come into effect on Friday and will be in place for 15 days.
A rare book fair opened on Monday for a planned run of six days, but after the new cases were confirmed, it closed early.
Rojava health officials are working to track down people who have had contact with the four new cases who are from Hasaka and Qamishli. The Kurdish Red Crescent said that 88 people were put into quarantine on Friday.
Co-chair of the health board Jwan Mustafa told Rudaw on Friday that they suspect the new cases came from the Syrian capital Damascus. The Syrian health ministry said Friday that 24 more people tested positive for the virus, bringing the total number of cases in regime-held areas to 608. Of this 184 people have recovered and 35 died.
“One of them, a woman, came from Damascus 15 days ago but three others have not been outside [Rojava]. We suspect that the woman has brought the virus to here. We are making our inspections to see whom these people had contact with,” said Mustafa.
On Thursday, he called on people to adhere to health measures as “the virus is among us and we are at a serious stage.”
While the number of cases in Rojava is small, authorities are worried that their limited health resources will not be able to cope with widespread contagion. They have only a few polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machines provided by Nechirvan Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Region.
Rojava Information Center (RIC), local monitor group, warned that Kurdish health officials have to be “extremely selective” when conducting tests as their ability is limited.
