COVID19: Kurdistan Region tops 50,000 infections

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region's Ministry of Health on Sunday announced a new uptick of over 600 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of cases to over 50,000.

The ministry's daily statement said that it had conducted 5,691 tests during the past 24 hours, raising the total of such tests 486,822 since the outbreak began in the Kurdistan Region in early March.

According to the health ministry, the total number of infections in the Kurdistan Region reached 50,248, including 36,172 recoveries and 1,826 deaths.

More Budget To Fight COVID-19

The Kurdistan Region's Minister of Health, Saman Barznji, announced on Saturday that the regional government had allocated three billion IQD to combat the new coronavirus.

"The cabinet decided to allocate a new budget of three billion IQD to fight the virus during the coming fall and winter seasons when an increase in the rate of infections is expected," Barznji said in a press conference.

The health official also noted that the ministry had received a proposal to reimpose a regionwide curfew due to the high rate of infections. He stated that the ministry is "yet to discuss any decision to reimpose a curfew in the region, but we are currently studying it."

On Friday, the Directorate of Public Health in Duhok province called for reimposing a curfew in all Kurdistan Region for no less than two weeks. Duhok has recorded a proportionately higher number of cases than other parts of the region in recent months.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday warned that an upcoming religious gathering called Arbaeen and the fall and winter seasons may significantly increase the number of infections.

Editing by Khrush Najari