COVID-19: Iraq announces over 3,300 new cases; total deaths top 5,500

Iraq's Ministry of Health and Environment announced on Tuesday that the recent sustained level of well over 3,000 daily coronavirus infections continued over the previous 24 hours as total fatalities resulting from the pandemic surpassed 5,500.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq's Ministry of Health and Environment announced on Tuesday that the recent sustained level of well over 3,000 daily coronavirus infections continued over the previous 24 hours as total fatalities resulting from the pandemic surpassed 5,500.

The ministry said in its daily statement that health workers had conducted 18,901 tests during the same period, 3,396 of which came back positive. The majority of them were reportedly recorded in Iraq’s capital of Baghdad.

According to the ministry’s statement, 67 patients died as a result of COVID-19 complications, raising the total national death count to 5,531.

Iraq has carried out a total of 1,183,950 tests since the beginning of the outbreak, according to official data. Nearly 157,000 patients are still considered active cases.

Today's figures do not include the most recent developments in 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.

Also Tuesday, the Kurdistan Region recorded an all-time high in daily infections with over 600 new cases.

Read More:  COVID-19: Kurdistan records new all-time high daily cases

Both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region are now witnessing significantly more daily infections than at any time since the first confirmed case in February in the city of Najaf.

Last week, Iraq became the Arab-majority nation with the overall highest deaths rates from the disease as it surpassed 5,000. 

Read More: COVID-19: Baghdad reports 2,700 new infections, as Iraq becomes Arab country with most deaths

Since then, one week ago, over 500 more patients have died.

The start of the rise in cases followed the re-opening in mid-May of Iraq’s borders with Iran, the original epicenter of the disease in the Middle East.

Read More: COVID-19 spikes again in Iran, with regional implications

Some Iraqi officials have increased the urgency of their public warnings characterizing the danger that Iraqis face from the number of recent outbreaks.

After a recent record was broken on Friday, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health Hazem Al-Jumaili said that such numbers acted as an "alarm bell" among health professionals and that the public must take the pandemic more seriously.

"Citizens' commitment to preventive measures is the most important factor in reducing the number of infections," he said, arguing that the ongoing spike in cases is "the result of the citizen's failure to comply with health guidelines."

The coronavirus has infected more than 20 million people worldwide and killed over 738,000 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