As COVID pandemic worsens, nearly 40,000 register for vaccines in 2 days in Erbil

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The recent surge in COVID-19 infections across the Kurdistan Region have pushed nearly 40,000 people in Erbil to register for vaccination in the past two days, a health official told Kurdistan 24.

Twelve new vaccine centers have recently opened in the capital and across Erbil province in a bid to accelerate vaccination against the rising pandemic.

“In the past two days, nearly 40,000 people registered themselves for vaccination,” Dr. Hardi Salah, deputy director of Rizgari Hospital in Erbil, told Kurdistan 24 on Thursday. The hospital was the first to roll out Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines earlier this year, but five new centers have joined it in the city this week.

The Kurdistan Regional Government on Wednesday called on the international community to assist it in acquiring more vaccines.

The region's authorities have avoided another crippling lockdown but ordered businesses to comply with health measures and all employees of shops, hotels, and restaurants to be vaccinated or have proof of a negative PCR test within the previous 72 hours.

Iraq and the Kurdistan Region are expecting a new delivery of nearly half a million COVID-19 doses, donated by the United States, in the coming weeks. 

The autonomous Kurdistan Region typically receives between 10 and 15 percent of the jabs donated to Iraq, but the federal government is also seeking to increase its vaccine rates. Iraq recorded 13,515 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.

The new wave is thought to be in large part due to the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus, which was first confirmed in the Kurdistan Region earlier this month.

Erbil province has administered the highest number of vaccines in the Kurdistan Region, with 62,800 as of this week.