PM Barzani allocates 400 million Iraqi dinar emergency COVID-19 budget for Raparin

Most of the hospitalized patients in the administration are unvaccinated.

Halgurd Sherwani 2021/10/21 14:55

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani (right) salutes health care workers at the Emergency Coordination Center and Blood Bank in Erbil, Sept. 21, 2020. (Photo: KRG)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani allocated an emergency budget of 400 million Iraqi dinars (approximately $275,000) to provide COVID-19 relief for the Raparin area of Sulaimani province, which has recently seen a sharp rise in the number of infections.

Almost half of this allocated budget is to be spent on installing an oxygen system and medical gas supply in the 100-bed Zhyan hospital, which serves as a COVID-19 ward in Ranya district, according to a statement from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) released on Thursday.

Another 150 million Iraqi dinar is to pay for other medical supplies the Raparin administration requires, the release added.

Raparin is enduring a surge in hospitalizations for those infected with the contagion whose conditions are not stable and require a constant supply of oxygen to survive.

The KRG’s health minister, Saman Barzinji, recently visited the city to assess the situation.

Most of the hospitalized patients in the administration are unvaccinated, he told Kurdistan 24 during his visit to Raparin.

The Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani previously urged citizens to get vaccinated against the infectious disease during an award ceremony for 12th-grade students on Wednesday.

There have been over 352,000 documented cases of COVID-19 in the Kurdistan Region.

The KRG is also deploying mobile vaccination teams to places with high interactions to increase the vaccination rate among citizens as COVID-19 infections increase across the autonomous region, the KRG’s health minister announced on Monday.