Syria says Assad and wife are recovering from COVID-19

The office had said on March 8 that Assad, 55, and his 45-year-old wife, who announced her recovery from breast cancer in 2019, had tested positive for COVID-19 after showing minor symptoms and that they would work in isolation at home. 

“The laboratory and X-ray indications related to their health condition are returning gradually to normal,” the office said in a statement, the first public update on the couple’s condition since they fell ill. 

Syria has seen a sharp rise in infections since mid-February, a member of the government’s coronavirus advisory committee told Reuters in early March as the country kicked off its vaccination campaign. 

Health and aid officials say it remains difficult to gauge the full scale of the outbreak given the lack of testing facilities in a health system devastated by a decade of war.