COVID-19: Kurdistan Region reports over 440 new cases, 22 fatalities

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region's Ministry of Health on Wednesday announced over 440 new coronavirus cases along with over 20 fatalities due to the disease in the past 24 hours.

The ministry said in a statement that health workers had conducted 2,881 tests over the same period, 443 of which returned positive. Of the new cases, 157 were in Erbil province, 136 in Duhok, 120 in Sulaimani, and ten in Halabja.

The autonomous region also announced 22 deaths in the same period, raising the total to 825. This came a day after the ministry also announced a new all-time high number of fatalities, 26, in a single day. Tuesday was also a record-setter for daily infections, with over 600 new cases.

Read More: Iraq, Kurdistan top record daily COVID-19 infections

According to official data, the number of infections since the start of the pandemic has reached 22,721, including 12,999 recoveries. The ministry has also conducted 259,037 tests for the virus.

The Kurdistan Region has recently seen a surge in coronavirus infections across its provinces, particularly in the capital, Erbil. The situation is similar across Iraq, which broke its daily cases record for a fourth consecutive day on Sunday.

According to figures from the past few days, daily infections in Erbil province have decreased to the 200s following its recent spike of over 400 cases per day. But daily fatalities have increased to over ten.

In Monday's meeting of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Council of Ministers, the body expressed its concern regarding the high numbers in a statement which warned, "The Kurdistan Region is in a dangerous situation."

Read More: KRG discusses economic, health situation in Kurdistan Region

South Korean Aid

In a ceremony on Wednesday, the region's health minister, Saman Barzinjy, received a coronavirus aid package from the South Korean consul-general to Erbil, Choi Kwang-Jin.

The new aid included equipment that would help with virus testing, which has ramped up across the region in recent weeks.

South Korea was among the earliest nations to which the disease spread from China but was also quick to contain it. The country of nearly 52 million people has a record of effectively managing earlier outbreaks of other contagious diseases that also emerged from China.

Strong social distancing guidelines contributed to limiting transmissions in a country where there is already steadfast adherence to wearing masks in public.

Amid relaxed lockdown measures, however, South Korea has been witnessing an uptick in the past six days to levels of infection it recorded in March, over five months ago. Most of the new cases have been in the capital, Seoul.

To date, the densely populated nation has reported just over 16,000 coronavirus cases and about 300 fatalities due to the disease. On Wednesday, there were nearly 300 new infections.

Editing by Khrush Najari