Iraq News Now

BAGHDAD, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday 7,300 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily count since the outbreak of the pandemic, raising the total infections to 887,291.

The new cases included 2,634 in the capital Baghdad, 866 in Basra, 526 in Wasit, 456 in Duhok, and 429 in Diyala, the ministry said in a statement.

It also said 33 new deaths were recorded during the day, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 14,535, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 5,225 to 789,424.

A total of 8,281,425 tests have been carried out across the country since the outbreak of the disease in February 2020, with 42,572 done during the day, the statement said.

It said 8,772 people were vaccinated during the past 24 hours across the country, bringing the total number of doses received to 110,983.

Ruba Falah, head of the ministry's media office, warned that the health institutions might not be able to deal with the latest increase in coronavirus infections as more than 7,000 cases were added during the past 24 hours.

"The health situation is still stable in Iraq, but if the coronavirus infections continue to increase, the health institutions may become unable to deal with such increase in infections," Falah told the official Iraqi News Agency (INA).

"Unfortunately, there are still some citizens not complying with health protective measures and unwilling to take the vaccine, and this threatens the health system," INA quoted Falah as saying.

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, and Sputnik V vaccines.