Sulaimani officials warn of spike in coronavirus cases if regulations ignored

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Sunday, the Health Director of Sulaimani province stressed the importance of residents remaining at home to help stem the spread of the coronavirus and warned them of criminal prosecution if they do not abide by the curfew now in place.

The coronavirus "is proliferating in neighborhoods and inside the cities, and the number of infections is increasing, and in order not to lose control and to avoid a health disaster," said Sabah Hawrami, head of the Sulaimani Health Directorate. "I ask the citizens to stay in their homes and follow all health instructions."

The statement came following a late Saturday announcement from the Kurdistan Region's Health Ministry that confirmed seven new coronavirus cases, six of which were in Sulaimani and the other in Erbil.

Furthermore, also on Saturday, the Sulaimani Traffic Directorate announced that it had recorded large numbers of citations handed out for those not adhering to the curfew.

"Traffic police have issued four thousand violations against those who broke the curfew in the city since the beginning of the lockdown on March 13,” said Karwan Mohammed, a spokesperson.

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“Six road accidents were recorded inside and outside the city of Sulaimani, leaving six injured, while 50 vehicles and 20 motorcycles have been seized so far," Mohammed added.

"Some citizens of Sulaimani are not very committed to the lockdown directive, and in the coming days, we will be forced to request additional security forces to control the movement of vehicles," added Mohammed.

According to the reported numbers of both the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), there has been a total of 233 coronavirus infections across the country, 54 of which have sprung up in the autonomous region. Sulaimani province is the center of the outbreak in Kurdistan, with a total of 43 reported cases. 

The KRG has made successive public announcements and carried out multiple awareness campaigns to promote habits that would reduce the chance of being infected with the coronavirus, officially referred to as COVID-19 and classified as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Over 335,000 people have caught the virus worldwide, and the numbers continue to rise in what appears to be an exponential increase, according to data compiled by WHO. More than 14,000 have died, as per official numbers reported by governments around the world, though the rate could be dramatically higher amid underreporting allegations.

Editing by John J. Catherine and Kosar Nawzad