Politics

Iraq records 3,291 new coronavirus cases, 75 deaths

The federal health ministry also said that it "has equipped all health institutions with the remdesivir drug," which studies have shown helps hospitalized coronavirus patients recover from the diseasefaster.

Mustafa Shilani 2020/08/23 15:45

middle east Iraq COVID-19

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq's Ministry of Health and Environment announced more than 3000 new coronavirus cases and 75 deaths during the past 24 hours.

The health ministry said in a statement that health workers had conducted nearly 20,000 tests in the last 24 hours, with 3,291 of them coming back positive. The new number raises the total of such tests in Iraq to over 1.43 million.

The statement indicated that the total number of infections in Iraq reached 204,341, including 146,409 recoveries, and 6,428 deaths. There are also currently over 51,000 active cases across the country.

Earlier on Sunday, the Iraqi ministry said it was distributing a drug that has shown promise in treating hospitalized coronavirus patients, notably in more severe cases.

The ministry said that it "has equipped all health institutions with the remdesivir drug, which is used with global treatment protocols to treat people with coronavirus."

The statement explained that the antiviral remdesivir "has obtained the approval of the US Food and Drug Administration" for use in treating severe cases "after it proved successful in some experiments that included more than 1,000 coronavirus patients from several countries."

On Friday, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom, said that they hope that the global coronavirus pandemic will end in less than two years, noting that the Spanish flu had taken that long to dissipate.

Editing by Khrush Najari