COVID-19: Iraq infections near half a million, as gov’t sets school opening date

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq’s Ministry of Health and Environment on Sunday reported 2,530 new coronavirus infections and 44 deaths due to the disease in the past 24 hours.

The health ministry in its statement mentioned that it had conducted 15,965 tests in the last 24 hours, making for a total of 3,002,586 tests since the beginning of the outbreak in Iraq.

According to official data, the total number of infections in Iraq has now reached 498,549, including 428,928 recoveries, and 11,327 deaths.

It is important to note that a patient classified as a “recovery” means they are no longer actively treated by health professionals, not that they have fully recovered.

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

On Saturday, Iraq’s coronavirus task force, a federal committee coordinating the nation’s response to the disease, issued a directive that set the start of the new school year at the end of November 2020.

The committee stated that the opening plans of the ministries of education and higher education and scientific research must adhere to the preventative measures outlined by the ministry of health. The plans would reportedly be presented to the next committee meeting.

The coronavirus has infected more than 50 million people worldwide and killed over 1.26 million, according to Johns Hopkins University’s database. The actual figures could be dramatically higher due to insufficient testing capabilities or underreporting.

Editing by Khrush Najari