COVID-19: Kurdistan announces more than 400 daily infections

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Wednesday, Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Health 404 new infections, 11 deaths with the Coronavirus in the region within the past 24 hours.

Since the outbreak of the virus in the autonomous region in March, 15,577 people in total have been infected. Of these, 597 have died and 526 patients remain in medical care facilities where they are receiving treatment.

The health ministry’s daily statement mentioned that it had conducted 2,296 tests in the last 24 hours, with 404 of them coming back positive. According to the most recent government data, 218 of these cases were in Erbil province, 101 in Duhok, 64 in Sulaimani, and 21 in Halabja. Until recent weeks, Sulaimani was the province within the Kurdistan Region most affected by the coronavirus, but Erbil and Duhok have since surpassed it.

Earlier on Wednesday, the health ministry also announced, "Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Masrour Barzani, decided to allocate one billion IQD  (roughly $833,000) from the emergency budget allocated to confront the coronavirus in Duhok province." 

According to the KRG figures, Duhok has so far seen 801 individuals contract the highly-contagious disease, six of whom have died. Local health authorities in the province's district of Aqra recently quarantined two villages after more than 20 cases surfaced there.

Aqra official Sabah Zuhair stated that the recent increase in cases across the district was due to "the recent easing of the movement between the district and the provinces, individuals entering the city through illegal means, and the lack of citizens' commitment to health regulations."

Also on Wednesday, Iraq's federal Ministry of Health and Environment in Baghdad announced that it had recorded over 2,800 new coronavirus cases for the second day in a row, as well as more than 75 fatalities in the past 24 hours.

Read More: COVID-19: Iraq reports over 2,800 new cases, 77 fatalities

These figures do not include today’s numbers listed above for the Kurdistan Region, which has its own health ministry and typically announces results later in the day. As such, Kurdistan's figures are usually added to the following day's national tally. 

The coronavirus has infected more than 16.6 million people worldwide and killed over 657,000 according to government-reported data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The actual figures could be dramatically higher due to insufficient testing capabilities or underreporting.

Editing by John J. Catherine