Kurdistan's hospitals see more COVID-19 patients at Delta variant spreads

A female student listens to a lecture on the first day of the new school year in the Kurdistan Region amid the coronavirus pandemic, Sept. 27, 2020. (Photo: AFP/Safen Hamid)
A female student listens to a lecture on the first day of the new school year in the Kurdistan Region amid the coronavirus pandemic, Sept. 27, 2020. (Photo: AFP/Safen Hamid)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Hospitals in the Kurdistan Region are seeing an increase in patients with COVID-19 symptoms as the Delta variant has taken hold, the health minister said Thursday.

Dressed in protective gear and wearing a facemask, Saman Barzinji said in a press conference from an Erbil hospital that the number of people being admitted with coronavirus complications was increasing.

Barzinji has recently warned about a new wave of COVID-19 after cases of the fast-spreading Delta variant were confirmed in the Kurdistan Region last week. Earlier this week the minister said there is still widespread disinformation about the coronavirus and vaccines.

The region's health ministry on Wednesday recorded 1,078 new infections and 11 deaths over the previous 24 hours.

On Tuesday, Iraq's health ministry warned that the health system was incapable of dealing with sustained high numbers of new coronavirus patients. Around half of all COVID-19 patients in Iraq are in critical condition, putting pressure on overstretched hospitals.