COVID-19: Kurdistan Region moves to online learning as daily infections spike

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Public and private schooling in the Kurdistan Region are suspended for a month due to an infection spike among teaching staff and students across the region, according to a decree by Kurdistan’s coronavirus task force on Sunday.

While much of schooling, from third grade through eleventh grade, would continue online, the decision affects colleges and universities differently, with some going on with a partial physical and online learning system. The body would review measures before December 1.

“State and private schools for first, second, and twelfth graders will close until December 1, after which there will be a review of health conditions,” read a decree from the coronavirus committee, composed of the Kurdistan Region’s ministries of health, interior, education, and higher education.

“Twelfth graders will have access to online classes until schools reopen,” the decreed added. “Private and state schools will continue running online classes for students from grade three to eleven.”

“Universities and institutes will continue implementing “blended learning” systems (a mix of in-person and online classes) for scientific departments and medical schools,” the statement continued.

It added that “Universities and institutes will shift their focus to online classes in the “blended learning” system for humanities studies. Departments that require laboratory work, will continue to hold classes on campus.”

“Schools in villages or remote areas with limited internet access and limited number of students, will be shut down for all grades.”

“Provincial Operation Rooms will be tasked with overseeing public spaces, including places of worship, requiring them to comply with health guidelines,” the directive noted.

The Kurdistan Region in late September rang the bell of school year to start the new 2020-2021 academic year.

Related Article: Kurdistan Region applies distance learning for first half of new academic year

New Cases

According to the regional health ministry’s daily statement, health workers conducted 6,740 tests during the past 24 hours, raising the total number of such tests to 653,004, since the outbreak of the virus began in the Kurdistan Region in early March.

Of the tests conducted in the past 24 hours, the region recorded 1,054 infections. The total number of infections has now reached 77,079 cases.

The ministry also recorded 28 deaths over the past 24 hours, raising the total tally to 2,483.

Health officials say that over 43,000 people have recovered from the highly contagious disease, but it is important to note that “recovery” indicates that a patient is no longer being actively treated by health professionals—not that they have fully recovered from the disease.

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

Editing by Khrush Najari