COVID-19: Iraq reports over 2,000 new cases; total death toll nears 12,000

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The number of fatalities due to the coronavirus across Iraq has neared 12,000, according to health authorities, which on Monday reported over 2,000 new cases of the highly contagious disease.

The federal health ministry mentioned in a statement that it had conducted 24,908 tests in the last 24 hours, making for a total of 3,293,010 such tests carried out since the beginning of the outbreak in Iraq. The total number of infections in Iraq has now reached 537,457, including 467,654 recoveries and 11,996 deaths.

Earlier on Monday, the Iraqi government received from Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), a German state-owned development bank, about 10 million USD to help the Middle Eastern country combat the coronavirus disease—mainly by investing in building health.

The German Embassy to Iraq announced on social media that Berlin and Baghdad signed an agreement “dedicated to the construction of five makeshift hospitals in Iraq to help beat COVID-19.”

“Another agreement supports reconstruction program to support the safe and dignified return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their home,” the statement added.

Iraq has been recording new daily infections ranging between 2,200 to over 4,000 for the past few months except for the last two days when the number dropped below 2,000.

Read More: COVID-19: Iraq records 1,766 new infections and 33 deaths in 24 hours

Editing by Khrush Najari