Politics

COVID-19: Kurdistan Region records over 1,000 daily cases in 24 hours

The Kurdistan Region’s health ministry on Thursday announced over 1,000 cases of the highly contagious coronavirus across the region in the past 24 hours, raising the total infections to over 81,000 cases.

Halgurd Sherwani 2020/11/05 12:12

kurdistan COVID-19 KRG Kurdistan Region Pandemic Coronavirus

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s health ministry on Thursday announced over 1,000 cases of the highly contagious coronavirus across the region in the past 24 hours, raising the total infections to over 81,000 cases.

According to the regional health ministry’s daily statement, health workers conducted 7,079 tests during the past 24 hours, raising the total number of such tests to 680,686 since the outbreak of the disease in the Kurdistan Region in early March.

Of the tests conducted in the past 24 hours, the region recorded 1,195 infections. The total number of cases has now reached 81,608 cases since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ministry also recorded 23 deaths over the past 24 hours, raising total fatalities to 2,583.

Health officials say that over 51,000 people have recovered from the highly contagious disease, but it is important to note that “recovery” indicates that a patient is no longer being actively treated by health professionals—not that they have fully recovered from the disease.

Increasingly, medical experts recognize that COVID-19 symptoms, some of them quite serious, often continue long after an individual’s formal recovery and that various other symptoms, such as significant lung damage, could be permanent.

KRG discusses measures

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Council of Ministers on Monday convened to discuss the coronavirus measures taken as the number of active cases continues to soar, especially over the past few weeks.

In the meeting, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani directed the relevant ministries to apply all the necessary measures to protect citizens from infections, particularly inside the KRG offices, a statement read.

Health Minister Saman Barzinjy in the meeting presented a report on the numbers of infections and his ministry’s strategy to combat the pandemic.

Interior Minister Rebar Ahmed presented a detailed report on the government’s measures and addressed challenges that law enforcers face.

Among new measures the KRG has introduced is suspending most on-campus schooling and moving to online-based education.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany