Sulaimani urges Qatar flight passengers to contact authorities as coronavirus case on board confirmed
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Health authorities in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani Province on Friday called on passengers of a recent Qatar Airways flight to contact them for medical screening after confirming a person on the trip had had the novel coronavirus.
Flight QT462, carrying 84 passengers, arrived in Sulaimani International Airport Thursday at 10:49 am after departing from Doha in Qatar earlier in the day, according to a statement from Sulaimani’s Health Directorate.
The directorate urged passengers of QT462 to send their home addresses to the authorities. A medical team would then visit them to take samples for coronavirus testing.
The medical unit would also advise precautionary steps until the results of their tests are obtained. The statement affirmed that the personal information of the passengers would remain confidential.
According to the latest data of the Ministry of Health, there are a total of 27 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the autonomous Kurdistan Region.
Among those, one has passed away, and another person has completely recovered. The health condition of most of the infected people are stable, the ministry said Friday.
The Kurdistan Region’s high-level committee to combat coronavirus recently decided to temporarily halt people’s movements between the local provinces and with the rest of Iraq until March 24, a measure with the stated aim of containing the spread of the infection in the region.
Earlier on Friday, Sulaimani Governor Haval Abubakr announced during a press conference a new round of measures.
Abubakr stated that Sulaimani Province would be effectively under curfew, with movement between its cities and towns wholly halted from Saturday until March 28.
All public transportations in the province have also been suspended until April 1, with all cafes and places of gatherings shuttered until further notice.
He mentioned that trade movements inside the Kurdistan Region and on its international border gates would continue per the instructions of the government. This step aims to maintain a supply of essential goods to the region.
The governor warned that anyone trying to smuggle people illegally from neighboring countries to the Kurdistan Region to bypass the quarantining process would be punished and treated as a “criminal.”
Abubakr also stressed that those who aim to take advantage of the situation with “price manipulation” of goods would be met with appropriate legal action.
Editing by Kosar Nawzad