COVID-19: Kurdistan Region’s total infections top 85,000 cases

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region has so far recorded over 85,000 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, per a statement from the health ministry as it announced 900 new cases in the past 24 hours.

According to the regional health ministry, health workers conducted 6,099 tests during the past 24 hours, raising the total number of such tests to 704,804 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 900 infections. The total number has now reached 85,063 cases since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ministry also recorded 24 deaths over the past 24 hours, raising the total fatalities to 2,682 deaths.

Health officials say that over 52,000 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,” Health Minister Saman Barzinji said 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).”

“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,” Barzinji explained.

“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 self-isolation, and a 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 “not to listen to rumors, messages, and publications on social media that are not based on practical facts.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany