COVID-19: Iraq records over 2,400 daily infections, over 60 deaths

'ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Sunday, Iraq's Ministry of Health and Environment announced that it had detected over 2,400 positive cases of COVID-19 from the tests conducted in the past 24 hours, as it also reported more than 60 fatalities due to the disease.

Per a ministry statement, health workers had conducted 14,399 coronavirus tests during the same period, raising the total number of such tests to 1,029,159 since the start of the pandemic.

The total number of cases rose by 2,447 to reach 129,151, according to the ministry. Out of the total confirmed infections, 91,886 patients have recovered, and 4,868 have passed away, the statement said.

Turkey suspends flights to-and-from Iraq

On Sunday, Iraq's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced that Turkish authorities suspended all commercial flights to and from Iraq – including Kurdistan Region – until Sept 1 "on request of Turkey's Health Ministry."

The decision comes as Iraq reopened its airports for commercial flights on July 23, following a five-months-long ban on air travel imposed to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read More: PHOTOS: Iraqi airports reopen amid continued spike in infections

Those Iraqis stranded citizens in Turkey will be repatriated "through diplomatic channels," the CAA added.

Iraq Rings 'Alarm Bell'

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, Hazem Al-Jumaili, on Saturday said that the number of cases recorded on Friday, which was a new all-time, rose an "alarm bell" among health professionals and the public.

Jumaili affirmed that "the citizen's commitment to preventive measures is the most important to reduce the number of infections" and said that the ongoing spike in cases is "the result of the citizen's failure to comply with health guidelines."

Related Article: Iraq tops Iran's daily COVID-19 cases

Editing by Khrush Najari