Spare a thought for Syria during the coronavirus crisis

There is no place on earth less prepared for a coronavirus outbreak than a Syrian refugee camp. In hindsight, the deliberate targeting of homes and hospitals in Idlib, displacing over a million people from their houses, seems even more heinous now that it has left north west Syria utterly defenceless to the impact of the virus.

The only saving grace is that the hell-on-earth created here by the brutal Idlib campaign means that very few people are incentivised to visit and bring the disease with them. While the regime-held south confirmed its first case on Sunday, there are a few suspected cases in the rebel-held north west, but virtually no ability to test and confirm, thanks to the wholescale and deliberate destruction of healthcare services in Idlib. In north west Syria, there are just 1,937 hospital beds to serve a population of three million people. The medical facilities that are running are already underequipped and at overcapacity.