Politics

COVID-19: Iraq announces 2,426 new infections, 118 deaths in a single day

The Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment announced on Tuesday that health officials had confirmed more than 2,000 new infections of the coronavirus and the death of 118 patients across the country within the previous 24 hours.

Mustafa Shilani 2020/07/07 17:15

middle east Iraq COVID-19 Coronavirus Baghdad

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment announced on Tuesday that health officials had confirmed more than 2,000 new infections of the coronavirus and the death of 118 patients across the country within the previous 24 hours.

The ministry’s daily statement on the current health crisis noted that it had conducted 11,813 coronavirus tests in a single day, 2,426 of which came back positive.

According to the statement, since the spread of the virus to Iraq in late February, 64,701 people have been infected, 36,252 have recovered, and a total of 2,685 individuals have died from its complications.

On Monday, Iraqi officials threatened criminal prosecution of citizens not following health restrictions enacted to curb the spread of the virus and extended nationwide partial shutdowns to continue until at least July 20.

Since late May, Iraq has been recording increasingly higher numbers of new coronavirus infections and deaths, even as authorities reintroduced partial curfews in efforts to curb the spread of the virus. Amid the crisis, health officials have repeatedly expressed fears of a collapse of the already fragile healthcare system.

Ahmed Talal, the spokesperson for Prime Minister Mustafa al-Khadimi, announced the approval by the Council of Ministers of a law to guarantee draft pensions for the families of deceased health care workers who had contracted the highly-contagious disease.

"The project was referred to the Council of Representatives (parliament) for approval," added Talal in a press conference following the cabinet meeting.

Talal also stated that "the cabinet also authorized the Minister of Finance to sign an agreement with a German bank to receive 15 million euros to expand health projects and build 5 hospitals to combat the coronavirus.”

The coronavirus has infected more than 11.7 million people worldwide and killed over 540,000 according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The actual figures could be dramatically higher due to insufficient testing capabilities and underreporting.

Editing by John J. Catherine