Sulaimani governorate to ease COVID-19 lockdown restrictions at neighborhood level: Governor

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Sulaimani Governor Haval Abubakir has announced that the province will ease lockdown restrictions and allow certain businesses to reopen to mitigate the risks on food and economic securities.

In a new set of rules and regulations the Sulaimani mayorship released on Sunday, certain businesses will provide essential goods and services to the public such as restaurants, salons and barber shops, dry cleaners, cell phone repair shops, and vehicle services shops.

According to the new guideline, the hours of operation for eligible businesses is between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. 

“The procedures to ease restrictions are going to be implemented in three phases,” Abubakir told Kurdistan 24. In the first phase, which begins on April 16, “only those businesses that provide essential goods and services will be allowed at the neighborhood level,” he explained.

“A number of governmental institutions with a limited attendance of employees will be reopened in the second phase, planned to begin on May 1,” the governor continued. In the third phase, educational institutions such as schools, universities, and colleges are going to be reopened, he added.

Regarding the motives behind the decision to ease restrictions, Abubakir said they “want to mitigate the potential risks on food and economic securities the pandemic has caused.”

The final say on the proposed measures to ease restrictions lies with the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Ministry of Health, the governor told Kurdistan 24.

The decision to ease the lockdown restrictions comes as the number of people with coronavirus, formally known as COVID-19, appears to have decreased in Sulaimani since its spike in early March, making the province the epicenter of the virus in the Kurdistan Region in the early days of the outbreak.

According to the latest figures from the KRG’S Health Ministry, there are 330 confirmed coronavirus cases in areas under its jurisdiction, including four deaths and 167 recoveries.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany