As rebel-held Syria fears virus, just one machine is there to test

IDLIB, Syria (Reuters) - A single machine at Mohamad Shahim Makki's medical centre in Idlib province, part of Syria's last rebel stronghold, is the only alarm that will sound when the coronavirus strikes a population of millions of the world's most vulnerable people.

Makki's Epidemiological Surveillance Laboratory has the only device in areas outside of Syrian government control equipped to run a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to detect the virus. As of a few days ago, just 120 tests had been carried out on just 300 samples.