COVID-19: Kurdistan Region records over 400 new cases, 25 deaths in 24 hours
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The health authorities in the Kurdistan Region announced on Wednesday that it had detected over 400 new cases in the past 24 hours along with 25 deaths.
In their daily coronavirus update, officials from the regional health ministry announced 435 new infections over the previous 24 hours out of more than 4,275 tests completed in that period.
The Kurdistan Region has, thus, seen 94,856 cases of COVID-19.
Health authorities also announced 25 new deaths in the same period, bringing the number of fatalities to 3,061.
Officials have attributed a recent spike in the number of patients—at times over 1,000 new daily cases—primarily to the public’s failure to follow mandated health measures to stem the spread of the disease.
Health officials announced this week that over 31,000 COVID-19 patients are currently being treated in hospitals and clinics throughout the Kurdistan Region.
Read More: COVID-19: Kurdistan Region has over 31,000 patients under treatment
The health ministry has said that over 58,000 people have recovered from the coronavirus, but it is important to note that a “recovery” only indicates that a patient is no longer being actively treated by health professionals—not that they have fully recovered from the disease.
The coronavirus has infected over 57 million people worldwide and killed almost 1.4 million, according to Johns Hopkins University’s database. The actual figures could be dramatically higher due to insufficient testing capabilities or underreporting.
WHO “impressed” with KRG COVID-19 response
In a joint press conference following the meeting, Adham Ismail, the outgoing representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Iraq, said he was “impressed with the health institutions and the Ministry of Health in Kurdistan who cooperated with the WHO in preparing plans to contain the virus among the people, the IDPs, and refugees in the region.”
He also remarked, “It is good that so far the region’s hospitals do not suffer from a lack of oxygen.”
Read More: WHO 'impressed' with Kurdistan Region's coronavirus response
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany