Mayor of Sulaimani’s Darbandikhan town calls for more support to impose COVID-19 quarantine

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The mayor of Darbandikhan town in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani governorate on Monday requested additional aid to effectively implement a quarantine across the town following the diagnoses of eight individuals with the coronavirus. 

“The virus spread through an individual who interacted with several others,” Nasih Mala-Hassan, the mayor of Darbandikhan, told Kurdistan 24. “While we conduct inspections for all those who interacted with the individual carrying the virus, we believe it is best for other citizens to remain at home.”

The mayor’s request came after the Kurdistan Region’s Minister of Health, Saman Barzanji, called for a lockdown of the entire city of Darbandikhan on late Sunday to contain the risk of an outbreak of the coronavirus.

Mala-Hassan said the “joint decision” to place the entire town under quarantine was meant “to halt any kind of movement.”

“The number of security forces is not sufficient to accomplish that [curfew], that’s why we need additional aid to implement the quarantine,” he added.

Following Darbandikhan, the district of Chamchamal in Sulaimani governorate began to close all major roads leading in and out of the city late on Sunday after the first case of coronavirus was confirmed. 

The preventive measures came after Sulaimani’s Health director called on the people of both Darbandikhan and Chamchamal cities to stay in their homes, saying that the “foggy weather condition in both cities will contribute to the spread of the virus faster than normal.”

According to the most recent World Health Organization figures, the total number of infections worldwide has topped 318,000, with over 13,000 people dead.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany