COVID-19: Iraq reports over 3,400 new cases, 55 deaths

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment on Sunday announced that it had recorded over 3,400 new cases in the past 24 hours along with 55 fatalities as a result of virus complications.

With 3,481 patients' tests returning positive in the past day, there have so far been 349,450 total confirmed infections and 8,990 deaths.

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Across Iraq, according to the government, over 280,000 patients have recovered from the disease. It should be noted, however, that a patient classified as a "recovery" means they are no longer being actively treated by health professionals, not that they have fully recovered.

According to a recent study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, as reported by the Washington Post, the coronavirus appears to compromise the lining of blood vessels in organs such as the brain, kidneys, heart, and lungs.

"More than 20 million patients who have 'recovered' could be living with serious damage to their blood vessels," said the Post. "That could unleash a global surge in vascular diseases, from stroke and atherosclerosis to myocarditis and heart attack."

The coronavirus has infected more than 33 million people worldwide and killed over 975,000 according to Johns Hopkins University's database. The actual figures could be dramatically higher due to insufficient testing capabilities or underreporting.

Editing by Khrush Najari