New coronavirus death raises total to six in Kurdistan Region
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Saturday, health authorities in the Kurdistan Region's Sulaimani province announced the death of a coronavirus patient, raising the total death toll due to the new disease in the autonomous region to six.
Hersh Salim, the deputy head of the Sulaimani health directorate, told Kurdistan 24 that the deceased was a 37-year-old man, whose health condition had deteriorated earlier in the day.
This raises the total number of fatalities in Sulaimani province alone to five.
Related Article: COVID-19: Kurdistan reports 9 new cases as Iraq, again, breaks daily record
Senior Kurdistan Region health officials have expressed concerns regarding monitoring and tracking difficulties of new infections in case of a second wave of the highly-contagious disease.
According to the latest data by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), there are a total of 577 confirmed cases of coronavirus in areas under KRG jurisdiction, including sixth deaths and 409 recoveries.
In recent weeks, the number of active cases across Iraq has increased dramatically following the easing of lockdown restrictions in late April amid a strained national economy.
Read More: Kurdistan PM warns that lax attitude toward COVID-19 measures is causing spike in cases
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Friday described the situation as "very serious" in a strongly worded statement on Friday that accused "some" regional entities of trying to "politicize" the current situation.
Editing by Khrush Najari