Kurdistan Region earmarks additional funds to contain COVID-19

The total number of coronavirus infections to date in the Kurdistan Region reached 367,447 on Wednesday. (Photo: Kurdistan 24)
The total number of coronavirus infections to date in the Kurdistan Region reached 367,447 on Wednesday. (Photo: Kurdistan 24)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced on Wednesday that it had allocated additional funds to support efforts to combat the coronavirus across the autonomous region of Iraq.

On Wednesday, Erbil recorded 442 new cases and 11 fatalities among those who had contracted the highly-contagious disease. According to the regional Ministry of Health, the total number of infections to date in the region had reached 367,447, including 6,595 deaths.

A government statement explained that Prime Minister Masrour Barzani had "agreed to allocate additional funds to the health sector, based on the public interest, and in order to preserve the lives of the citizens of the Kurdistan Region."

These included "increasing the amount set for emergencies (purchasing medicines and medical requirements) from 1.5 billion dinars to five billion dinars to combat the coronavirus."

Also, some four billion dinars "were allocated to encourage doctors, nurses, health staff, and laboratory staff, as well as employees participating in teams specialized in combating the pandemic," plus another "150 million dinars per month for health awareness campaigns for citizens."

Such funds, the statement continued, would be distributed "according to the availability of cash in the Ministry of Health for the year 2022 and on the ministry's budget with the aim of distributing them to all the general directorates of Health in the Kurdistan Region, fairly and according to the requirements of necessity."

Editing by John J. Catherine