COVID-19: Kurdistan PM urges public to get vaccinated as Iraq’s total infections top 1 million

A health worker in a Kurdistan Region COVID-19 treatment center. (Photo: Archive)
A health worker in a Kurdistan Region COVID-19 treatment center. (Photo: Archive)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani urged the general public on Wednesday to protect themselves and their communities against the coronavirus and get vaccinated, just as Iraq passed the grim national milestone of one million infections since the first case was confirmed within its borders just over a year ago.

“The coronavirus is still a serious threat, we need to keep up the fight against it to the end,” Barzani wrote in a tweet.

He concluded by imploring residents of the Kurdistan Region, “Please keep wearing your masks, abide by official guidelines and get the vaccine.”

Register to receive the vaccine here.

Iraq recorded 8,696 new cases in the past day, bringing the total to date up to 1,001,854, including 15,098 deaths.

Today's figures reported by the federal government in Baghdad do not include the most recent developments in the autonomous Kurdistan Region, which has its own health ministry and typically announces results later in the day. As such, Kurdistan's numbers are usually added to the following day's national tally.

Earlier on Wednesday, the regional Ministry of Health in the autonomous Kurdistan Region announced 1,022 new coronavirus cases during the previous 24 hours, bringing the total number to 142,746 cases, 3,911 of them fatal.

Editing by John J. Catherine