COVID-19: Kurdistan Region’s daily virus cases drop to under 1,000

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s coronavirus cases dropped to over 700 infections on Sunday following a continued spike of the pandemic across the region.

According to the regional health ministry, health workers conducted 5,997 tests during the past 24 hours, raising the total number of such tests to 698,705 since the outbreak of the disease in the Kurdistan Region in early March.

Of the tests conducted in the past 24 hours, the region recorded 787 infections. The total number has now reached 84,163 cases since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ministry also recorded 21 deaths over the past 24 hours, raising total fatalities to 2,658.

Health officials say that over 51,000 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.

Awareness-Raising Campaign

"Please pay attention and listen to the awareness campaign," said Health Minister Saman Barzinji at a press conference in the regional capital of Erbil, adding that the effort "is not the first of its kind, nor the last, and it is in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO)."

Barzinji explained, "The campaign includes distributing awareness leaflets with masks for citizens to get used to wearing them when they leave the house to carry out their daily work."

"This campaign," he continued, "is to prevent infection, but at the same time, health instructions and procedures must be adhered to when one becomes infected.

These include directions on how an infected person deals with people around them, steps for health isolation, and review of specialized centers for the treatment of the coronavirus."

"Those who contract it, as well as carriers of the virus, must present themselves to a doctor who specializes in this disease and to receive the necessary treatment according to the recommendations and protocols of the Ministry of Health."

Barzinji urged the public "to not listen to rumors, messages, and publications on social media that are not based on practical facts."

Editing by Khrush Najari