COVID-19: Kurdistan breaks daily record with nearly 500 new cases
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Health announced nearly 500 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the highest daily toll recorded since the outbreak.
The health ministry’s statement pointed out that it had conducted 2,334 tests during the last 24 hours with 495 coming back positive and that it had confirmed eight new deaths.
The statement also mentioned that with 72 individuals quarantined in the last 24 hours, a total of 896 individuals are now quarantined across the region in 20 different locations. The ministry also reported that 79 patients had recovered from the virus in the same period.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic in the Kurdistan Region, the virus has infected 8,431 individuals, of whom 2,688 have recovered, and 271 have died. Those remaining under medical care number at 4,995: 699 of them in Erbil province, 4,140 in Sulaimani, 60 in Duhok, and 96 in Halabja.
On Saturday, Erbil Governor Firsat Sofi announced that the provincial government was lifting the strict curfew that came into effect a week ago and replacing it with a different partial lockdown measure.
Read More: KRG announces 204 new COVID-19 cases; Erbil imposes partial curfew
Earlier on Tuesday, Erbil’s main provincial coronavirus taskforce said in a statement that it had closed 274 stores or other small businesses within the boundaries of the province's ten districts because their ownership or staff had displayed a lack of commitment to health instructions to prevent the spread of coronavirus during the past seven days.
The statement also called on consumers, merchants, and staff in all businesses that have been allowed to reopen to serve the public "with the utmost sense of responsibility to protect people's lives and health security of the province," urging them to comply with health instructions and wear masks in order to not be subjected to closure and other legal procedures.
The Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate released a statement earlier in the week reporting that 85 media workers across the region had so far contracted the disease.
Read More: Syndicate: 85 journalists in Kurdistan Region have contracted COVID-19
Also on Tuesday, federal health officials in Baghdad announced more than 2,000 new daily infections and the death of 118 patients across the country.
Read More: COVID-19: Iraq announces 2,426 new infections, 118 deaths in a single day
Today's figures for Iraq do not include the most recent developments in the Kurdistan Region, which has its own health ministry and typically announces results later in the day. As such, Kurdistan's figures are usually added to the following day's national tally.
The coronavirus has infected more than 11.7 million people worldwide and killed over 540,000 according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The actual figures could be dramatically higher due to insufficient testing capabilities and underreporting.
Editing by John J. Catherine