Iraq sets daily record of 5,267 new COVID-19 cases
BAGHDAD, March 16 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday 5,267 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily increase since the outbreak of the pandemic, raising the total nationwide infections to 768,352.
The ministry said in a statement that 39 new deaths were recorded, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 13,827, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 4,564 to 695,184.
A total of 7,459,431 tests have been carried out across the country since the outbreak of the disease in February 2020, with 39,489 done during the day.
Meanwhile, spokesman of the ministry Sayf al-Badr said in a press release that despite the seriousness of the epidemiological situation in the country, the pandemic is still under control.
"The health restrictive measures have succeeded in preventing thousands of coronavirus infections, and we can prevent more if there is a serious adherence to the instructions of the Higher Committee for Health and National Safety," al-Badr said.
Earlier in the day, spokesman of the Iraqi Ministry of Planning Abdul-Zahara al-Hindawi told the state-run al-Iraqiya channel that the poverty rate in Iraq has reduced to 24.8 percent after a sharp increase in the country's poverty rate at the beginning of the outbreak of coronavirus in early 2020.
A ministry's latest research, in cooperation with the World Bank, showed that the poverty rate in Iraq reached 24.8 percent of the population in the second half of 2020, down from 31.7 percent in the first half of the year, al-Hindawi 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.
On March 2, Iraq received a shipment of COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government to help combat the pandemic.
The Iraqi National Board for Selection of Drugs has approved the emergency use of the Sinopharm vaccines, in addition to AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Sputnik V vaccines.