Turkey extends flight suspension with Iraq, as Iraq COVID-19 deaths top 7,000
The return of Iraqis from Turkey would be facilitated through diplomatic channels, an Iraqi government body said.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment on Monday reported 3,757 new coronavirus cases and 83 deaths due to the disease over the past 24 hours.
The same day, Turkey announced that it had extended the suspension of flights between it and its southern neighbor by an additional month.
Air travel would remain shut until October 1, according to an announcement from Iraq's Civil Aviation Agency. Citizens seeking to return to Iraq would be able to set up flights through diplomatic channels, the body said.
Later in the day, the Iraqi health ministry said in a statement that health workers had conducted 18,578 tests in the past 24 hours, raising the total of such tests to 1,605,904.
The ministry added that the total number of infections in Iraq had reached 234,934, including 176,602 recoveries, and 7,042 deaths.
It should be noted that a “recovery” does not necessarily mean that the former infected persons have fully healed. Studies suggest that even after the virus has left one’s body, a recovered person can still suffer lingering symptoms that affect their health, even in individuals that had a “mild” version of the disease.
As the country has relaxed lockdown measures and ramped up testing, both transmission and detection of the virus has increased. Authorities have often stated that the lack of adherence to health guidelines has been a primary driver of infections.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday praised the leading role of the Kurdistan Region's Duhok province in the fight against the virus due to it having the lowest fatality rate compared to the rest of the country.
Read More: COVID-19: Kurdistan Region records 540 new cases; WHO praises Duhok in fighting virus
The WHO representative in Iraq also stressed the necessity of protective measures and avoiding public gatherings as 57 percent of infections come from being in such assemblies.
Read More: WHO stresses the importance of protective measures, as Iraq records 3,731 new COVID-19 cases
Editing by Khrush Najari