Delta variant of COVID-19 responsible for half of all hospitalizations in Kurdistan's Sulaimani: Doctor

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The director of a major hospital in the Kurdistan Region's city of Sulaimani said on Tuesday that half of all hospitalized COVID-19 patients have the Delta variant of the disease.

"There are no longer any vacant beds in hospitals specialized in treating people infected with the coronavirus," Azad Hawrami, the head of Shaheed Taher Ali Wali Beg Hospital, told Kurdistan 24.

He warned that "hospitals no longer have the capacity to accommodate more patients."

Over the past few weeks, the COVID-19 outbreak in the Kurdistan Region has reached its most severe point to date. Daily cases have hovered between two and four thousand while dozens have died due to the highly-contagious disease.

Hawrami claimed that the lack of public adherence to health guidelines was largely to blame. The Kurdistan Region’s health ministry also said Tuesday it recorded over 2,000 new COVID-19 cases and 20 deaths.

According to official data, the total number of cases in the region has now reached over 270,000 with some 5,000 proving fatal.

Editing by John J. Catherine