COVID-19: Kurdistan announces 302 new cases, no new restrictions for Eid

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Health announced just over 300 new coronavirus infections and eight deaths during the previous 24 hours.

A ministry statement specified that out that 2,295 tests had been conducted in that time period, with 302 of them coming back positive. 

According to government figures, 139 of them were in Erbil province, slightly more than Sulaimani which has usually seen the highest numbers of cases in the autonomous region over the past several weeks, which reported 124. Additionally, health officials reported 24 new infections in Duhok and 15 in Halabja.

Six of the fatalities occurred in Erbil and the other two in Sulaimani. The ministry also said it was classifying 225 patients as having recovered over the past day.

Of the 3,652 patients that remain under medical care, 2,580 are in Sulaymaniyah, 899 in Erbil, 112 in Duhok and 61 in Halabja.

Since the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in the Kurdistan Region was reported in early March, total infections have reached 12,937 and deaths now number at 504.

Earlier in the day, regional Health Minister Saman Barznji announced that the High Governmental Committee to Combat the Coronavirus has not so far decided to reimpose earlier curfews during the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday. He told reporters that the committee's decision made during the previous week to ease restrictions is, for now, still in effect.

Read More: COVID-19: Kurdistan announces 252 new infections, eases restrictions 

Also on Tuesday, Iraq's federal Ministry of Health and Environment in Baghdad announced over 2,700 new coronavirus cases and 77 deaths related to the disease.

Read More: COVID-19: Iraq announces over 2,700 new infections, more than 70 fatalities

These figures do not include today’s numbers listed above for the Kurdistan Region, which has its own health ministry and typically announces results later in the day. As such, Kurdistan's figures are usually added to the following day's national tally. 

The coronavirus has infected more than 16.6 million people worldwide and killed over 657,000 according to government-reported data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The actual figures could be dramatically higher due to insufficient testing capabilities or underreporting.

Editing by John J. Catherine