BAGHDAD, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Saturday 4,054 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of nationwide infections to 754,318.
It also reported 23 new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 13,719, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 4,086 to 681,828.
A total of 7,353,052 tests have been carried out across the country since the outbreak of the disease in February 2020, with 30,999 done during the day.
A member of the parliamentary health committee, Abbas al-Husseini, said in a press release that "Iraq is in danger" due to the spread of the coronavirus, and hospitals have begun to be filled with infected children and the elderly.
However, "health workers have so far managed to keep the country out of danger," al-Husseini said.
Iraq has taken a series of measures to curb the recent rise in infections after the health ministry announced on Feb. 15 the detection of a new strain characterized by faster transmission and a higher level of severity.
"The curfew measures have significantly reduced infections, especially with nearly two thirds of citizens adhering to the restrictions. Previously, we expected that infections would exceed 15,000 per day, but so far we are still registering about 5,000 infections per day," al-Husseini said.
On March 8, the Iraqi authorities decided to extend the full curfew for Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and a partial curfew from 8:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. local time for the rest of the week, starting from March 9 until March 22.
On March 2, Iraq received a shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Chinese government to help combat the pandemic.
The Iraqi National Board for Selection of Drugs has approved the emergency use of Sinopharm vaccine, in addition to AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Sputnik V vaccines, to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country.