KRG extends curfew, reports three new COVID-19 cases

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Thursday announced the extension of a region-wide curfew until April 23, as health authorities reported three new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours.

The Kurdistan Region Interior Ministry first imposed a curfew on March 13, restricting the movement of vehicles, shutting down schools and universities, and suspending work in government institutions. The move came as part of measures to prevent the further spread of the new coronavirus disease, formally known as COVID-19.

Since then, officials have extended the curfew and expanded its scope multiple times. For the most part, the public at large has cooperated, but security forces have sometimes needed to enforce the new rules.

In a statement on Thursday, the Interior Ministry said the curfew would stay in effect until midnight of April 23 and includes a ban on non-emergency pedestrian movement. The order also stipulates that, from 6:00 pm until midnight, only health professionals and security forces were permitted to travel in any way.

Furthermore, the Health Ministry on Thursday confirmed that they had conducted 1,302 COVID-19 tests over the past 24 hours, three of which came back positive. One of the new patients is a 28-year-old man from the Darbandikhan district of Sulaimani province. The other two are in Halabja province: two girls 18-and 14-years old.

According to the Health Ministry’s latest update, there are a total of 335 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the region, including four deaths, and 227 cases of recoveries.

The highly-contagious disease has infected over 2.1 million people worldwide and killed close to 142,000, according to the latest government-reported data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The actual figures could be dramatically higher due to insufficient testing capabilities or underreporting.

Editing by Kosar Nawzad