The Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northeast Syria announced a lockdown in the broad swath of territory under its control today, just hours after the Syrian government confirmed its first case of the coronavirus.

The autonomous administration has declared a two-week curfew. It said in a statement this could be extended “in case of necessity and the public interest.” The administration said no cases of COVID-19 had been detected in the northeast so far. The area lying east of the Euphrates bordering Turkey to the north and Iraq to the east is home to between 4 million to 5 million people, among them hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians and Islamic State prisoners.

The real number of coronavirus cases in Syria is widely believed to far higher because of its proximity to Iran, which is among the worst affected countries worldwide. The Kurdish-led administration has sealed all its borders save for humanitarian and coalition deliveries and set up additional checkpoints to monitor people’s movements.  

Mazlum Kobane, the commander in chief of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which provides security for the area, appealed in a video posted on his Twitter account for people to abide by the new rules and called medical staff “our new leaders.”