Syrian President Bashar Assad and his wife, Asma, have tested positive for the coronavirus after experiencing mild COVID-19 symptoms, his office said Monday.<\/p>\n
The couple received PCR tests after experiencing minor symptoms consistent with the virus, according to an official statement from the presidential office, as reported by the state-controlled\u00a0SANA<\/a>\u00a0news agency. Both are in “good health and in a stable condition,” the statement said.<\/p>\n Assad, 55, and Asma, 45, will continue to work during an expected two to three weeks of in-home isolation, it said.<\/p>\n Syria has reported fewer than 16,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,063 COVID-19-related deaths, according to\u00a0Johns Hopkins University.<\/a><\/p>\n But with low levels of PCR testing, some experts say the numbers could be much higher, as NPR\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0last year.<\/p>\n In September, the U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the Security Council that it was not possible to determine the full extent of the pandemic in Syria until testing ramped up.<\/p>\n