KRG confirms 12 new COVID-19 cases, raising total to 162

A statement from the Ministry of Health said that health authorities had carried out 607 tests over the past 24 hours.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region Health Ministry on Tuesday confirmed 12 novel coronavirus infections across the region over the past 24 hours.

A ministry statement said that health authorities had carried out 607 tests over the past 24 hours, 395 in Erbil, 111 in Sulaymaniyah, and 101 in Dohuk. It confirmed that 12 new individuals tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

One of the new infections was of a person in Erbil, a 22-year-old woman who interacted with an infected person from Khalifan sub-district. Five of the new cases in Sulaimani, four in the city center, and a man in Darbandikhan district, aged 37. The remaining six are in Halabja province, two men, two women, and two children.

The statement highlighted that the tally in the Kurdistan Region has now added up to 162 people, including two deaths, and 57 who have recovered. The rest, the Health Ministry noted, are under careful medical supervision.

The statement also explained that the number of people who remain quarantined is 1,092, all of whom will be released after a two-week isolation period if they show no signs or symptoms of having contracted the virus.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has quarantined 5,503 individuals as it began implementing measures to combat the further spread of the coronavirus disease, officially referred to as COVID-19.

Officially referred to as COVID-19, the highly-contagious disease caused by the novel coronavirus was first reported by Chinese authorities in late 2019. As it continues to spread worldwide, it has infected over 823,000 people and killed more than 40,000, according to government-reported data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The rate of infections could be dramatically higher due to insufficient testing capabilities or underreporting

Editing by Kosar Nawzad