Coronavirus testing being conducted at a hospital in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, May 2020. Photo: Rudaw
HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Sixteen new cases of coronavirus recorded in Iraqi Kurdistan Region in the past 24-hour, the ministry of health of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said in a statement on Wednesday and Thursday.
According to the ministry 8 people in Erbil and 8 in Sulaimani province were tested positive for covid-19.
So far, and according to the KRG ministry of health there have been 447 cases of coronavirus in Iraqi Kurdistan. A total of 385 patients have recovered, and five people have died.
In March 2020 the World Health Organization has declared the spread of coronavirus, formally known COVID-19, to be a pandemic. The statistics on Thursday evening showed that there are over 5,047,377 coronavirus cases globally, including more than 329,816 confirmed deaths, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
Despite a recent surge in coronavirus cases, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Ministry of Health spokesperson Muhammad Qadir said on Thursday that the government does not believe that it will be necessary to extend the coming lockdown when it expires after Eid al-Fitr, the”Festival of Breaking the Fast”, is a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan.
“We have imposed the curfew during Eid al-Fitr because people will be in contact, but we don’t find it necessary to extend it beyond that,” Qadir said.
“In case of an increase in the number of cases of coronavirus in the Kurdistan Region, we shall impose new regulations based on the situation,” he added.
(with files from nrttv.com)
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