COVID-19: Kurdistan Region records highest daily cases as infections near 60,000

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The autonomous Kurdistan Region’s Health Ministry on Thursday recorded the highest daily infections of coronavirus since the onset of the pandemic in early March, nearing 60,000 cases.

The ministry’s daily statement said it had conducted 5,387 tests during the past 24 hours, raising the total of such tests to 547,245 since the outbreak began in the Kurdistan Region in early March.

Out of the tests conducted in the past 24 hours, the region has recorded 974 infections, the highest recorded in 24 hours since the pandemic begun.

According to figures released by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the total number of infections have reached 59,251 cases.

The ministry also recorded 28 deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the total death count to 2,088 fatalities.

Health officials say that over 36,000 have recovered from the highly contagious disease, but it is important to note that the classification of “recovery” indicates that a patient is no longer being actively treated by health professionals, not that they have fully recovered.

Increasingly, medical experts recognize that COVID-19 symptoms, some of them serious, often continue long after an individual’s formal recovery and that various other symptoms such as significant lung damage could be permanent.

KRG reviews measures

On Wednesday, the Kurdistan Region’s high-level committee to confront the coronavirus met to discuss the overall situation in the autonomous region, including health measures governing the new academic year and travel restrictions at border crossings.

Following the meeting, government spokesperson Jutyar Adil said during a press conference in Erbil that the first and second grades of primary school and the final grade of high school would “continue as planned,” with in-person attendance, while the remaining grades would offer online classes only.

He also urged the Ministry of Interior to effectively implement the recent decision to impose penalties for not wearing face masks in public.

Adil continued, however, by announcing that committee members “also stressed the need to open” border crossings with Iran “for citizens to be able to travel after a mechanism for testing and inspection is set up.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany