Iraq suspends all domestic flights as it confirms 10th coronavirus death

The government directive excludes cargo flights.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi government announced on Monday that it was suspending all flights at its domestic airports from March 17 until March 24 in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus throughout the country.

The decision came after a cabinet meeting chaired by Caretaker Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi and attended by a representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), which declared COVID-19 a global pandemic last week.

The government directive excludes cargo flights and will include all domestic airports, including the Erbil and Sulaimani airports in the autonomous Kurdistan Region.

"Please be advised that following instructions received from the Iraq Civil Aviation Authority, airports throughout Iraq, including Erbil, will close to commercial passenger flights from 18.00 hours on March 17th until 18.00 hours on March 24," read a bulletin posted on the website of Erbil International Airport.

The order came one day after Iraq on Sunday suspended all flights to and from Baghdad International Airport for the same period.

So far, Iraq has confirmed 133 coronavirus cases across the country. Ten of them have died while 30 others have recovered. 

Earlier in the day, the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Health Ministry announced that five people infected with the coronavirus in the Kurdistan Region have recovered as the regional Health Ministry confirmed three new cases.

Read More: KRG confirms three more coronavirus cases as five others recover 

The Kurdistan Region has reported a total of 37 coronavirus cases in total, one of them fatal. 

The KRG has been one of the governments in the region and the world that began enacting precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the disease early on, as it became clear that it was likely on its way to becoming a pandemic. Measures have included temporarily closing schools, declaring extended public holidays for government workers, canceling all religious services, and announcing a temporary curfew in the provinces of Erbil and Sulaimani. 

Read More: KRG extends curfew by 72 hours as authorities report more coronavirus cases 

The region has also been quick to circulate information on the virus and guidelines on best practices to prevent the virus from being spread further among the population. 

According to the WHO, the coronavirus has so far infected over 182,000 and killed more than 7,100 worldwide since first appearing in China in late 2019. 

Editing by Kosar Nawzad and John J. Catherine