COVID-19: Iraq announces 110 deaths, 2,184 new infections in 24 hours

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Thursday, the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment announced it had recorded close to 2,200 new coronavirus cases and over 100 more deaths due to complications related to the disease in the past 24 hours.

In its daily statement, the ministry mentioned that it had conducted 11,762 new tests for individuals suspected of carrying the virus, out of which 2,184 came back positive. 

Since the outbreak of the virus, Iraq has recorded a total of 53,708 infections, including 2,160 deaths, and a total of 27,912 recoveries, leaving 25,796 active cases in treatment centers, according to official data.

Since late May, Iraq has been recording increasingly higher numbers of new coronavirus infections and deaths, even as authorities reintroduced partial curfews in efforts to curb the spread of the virus. Amid the crisis, health officials have repeatedly expressed fears of a collapse of the healthcare system.

In efforts to aid Iraq in curbing the outbreak of the pandemic on Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently stated it was supplying Iraq with 300 oxygenation devices.

The representative of the World Health Organization in Iraq, Adham Ismail stated that "WHO has allocated a shipment of medical aid to Iraq from its warehouses in the Emirates city of Dubai." He added that "the shipment is 300 oxygen devices that will be distributed to government hospitals in cooperation with the Iraqi Ministry of Health."

Ismail noted further, "the UAE government has allocated a plane to transport the shipment from the WHO warehouses in Dubai to Baghdad International Airport.

The package comes after the UAE, Kuwait, Azerbaijan, and other regional countries delivered similar assistance to Iraq in recent days, as the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise with daily infections of nearly 2,000.

Editing by Khrush Najari