ASHGABAT (TCA) — Authorities in Turkmenistan are clearing out hundreds of people held in quarantine zones in what could be an attempt to hide suspected cases of coronavirus ahead of a visit by World Health Organization (WHO) experts, RFE/RL's Turkmen service reports.
More than 400 people placed in a quarantine area on the outskirts of Turkmenabat, the secretive Central Asian country's second-largest city, located in the eastern Lebab region, are being transferred to small provincial hospitals and a psychiatric clinic.
Foreign media reports alleged that Turkmen authorities decided to temporarily transfer the sick from quarantine sites to hide coronavirus cases from a WHO team arriving in the country next week.
Turkmenistan has not reported any registered COVID-19 cases yet, but experts are skeptical, given the lack of transparency and independent media in the country.
Doctors in the country are not allowed to talk about the coronavirus, face masks are banned, and citizens are punished for talking about the global pandemic.
Meanwhile, the authorities have set up three quarantine zones around the country in a bid to prevent the spread of what officials called "infectious diseases."
People with coronavirus symptoms are not being treated for the virus, and COVID-19 test results are unknown, even if they are performed.
Source: TCA
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