COVID-19: Kurdistan Region registers over 630 new cases, 17 fatalities in 24 hours

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s Health Ministry on Monday announced over 630 new cases and 17 fatalities in the past 24 hours.

In its daily statement on COVID-19 figures, the regional health ministry said it had completed 4,697 tests across the autonomous region in the past day, 636 of which were positive.

The official statement also noted that there had been 17 deaths during the same period: nine in Sulaimani province, six in Duhok province, two in Erbil.

There have now been over 42,000 confirmed infections in the Kurdistan Region, 1,553 of them fatal.

On Monday, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani visited the Emergency Coordination Center (122) and the Blood Bank Directorate in Erbil to closely evaluate the region’s response to the pandemic.

“The Kurdistan Regional Government [KRG] pays great importance to the health sector to serve citizens to the fullest, and we will do everything in our power to develop this sector to provide all citizen’s needs,” Barzani said in a statement.

He pointed out that since the start of the pandemic, the KRG has spent up to 23 billion Iraqi dinars to secure medical devices, including providing CT Scan and MRI, and 40 billion dinars to ensure the needs of people with cancer.

Read More: Kurdistan Region PM visits Erbil emergency, blood bank centers

As Autumn approaches the Kurdistan Region, health officials repeatedly warn residents to adhere strictly to precautionary measures as infections from both coronavirus and seasonal influenzas could co-occur, overburdening the health care system. 

The total death count in the Kurdistan Region has reached 1,500 fatalities since the pandemic hit the region in early March, as the regional health ministry on Sunday registered 24 fatalities due to the coronavirus.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany