First coronavirus case reported in Iraqi capital, sixth overall
A medical team takes the temperature of Iraqi travellers at the Shalamjah border crossing upon their return from Iran over coronavirus fear, February 21, 2020. Photo: AFP
BAGHDAD,— Iraq reported the first case of coronavirus in the capital Baghdad on Thursday, its sixth in total.
A man contracted the virus after a trip to Iran, the health ministry said in a statement. He was in “good health” in a Baghdad hospital, it added.
Iraq on Wednesday banned public gatherings and barred entry by travelers from Kuwait and Bahrain because of the spread of the new coronavirus, prohibiting travel to or from a total of nine countries.
Iraq is concerned about the spread of the coronavirus from neighboring Iran, one of the worst-hit countries outside China where the virus originated late last year.
Iraq has cultural and religious ties with Iran and annually receives millions of Iranian pilgrims.
An Iraqi family of four who returned from Iran tested positive for the coronavirus in Kirkuk province on Tuesday. They were the first Iraqis known to have caught the disease, a day after an Iranian student in Najaf became Iraq’s first confirmed case. He was later transferred to Iran.
Iraq’s Kurdistan Region reports no coronavirus cases so far.
People who have arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan from Iran in recent weeks have been taken to a special centre in Erbil to undergo a 14-day monitoring period in order to make sure they are not infected with the virus.
More than 1,000 people are under supervision and quarantined at 13 locations in the Kurdistan Region after returning from Iran, where a significant outbreak of the disease is ongoing.
Copyright © 2020, respective author or news agency, Ekurd.net | Reuters
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