COVID-19: Iraq reports 4,755 new cases, spike in western Baghdad
Iraq announced 4,755 new coronavirus infections and 78 deaths in its daily pandemic briefing just as the country is witnessing large religious gatherings, which health experts have sternly warned are extremely likely to cause outbreaks of the highly-contagious disease.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq announced 4,755 new coronavirus infections and 78 deaths in its daily pandemic briefing just as the country is witnessing large religious gatherings, which health experts have sternly warned are extremely likely to cause outbreaks of the highly-contagious disease.
The Ministry of Health and Environment said in a statement said that it had completed 23,029 coronavirus tests over the previous 24 hours, making for a total of 1,670,483 tests carried out since the first case was confirmed in the country in February.
Ministry officials said that health workers in the western half of Baghdad, known as Karkh, have recorded a significant spike in daily cases, numbering at 1,115.
Today's figures do not include the most recent developments in the autonomous Kurdistan Region, which has its own health ministry and typically announces results later in the day. As such, Kurdistan's figures are usually added to the following day's national tally.
So far, Iraq has reported 247,039 confirmed infections, 7,275 of them fatal.
On Tuesday, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Ghebreyesus called on governments of the world to continue isolation restrictions imposed to stop outbreaks, adding that lifting such rules without controlling the virus would have serious consequences.
“We want to see children go back to school and people return to the workplace, but we want to see this done safely,” he said, adding, “No country can pretend that the epidemic is over. The truth is that this virus spreads easily. Lifting restrictions without control is a recipe for disaster.”
He continued, referencing “explosive outbreaks” that have been linked to gatherings of people around the world.
On Sunday, thousands of Shia Muslims from multiple provinces across Iraq gathered to commemorate the annual religious observance of Ashura in the city of Karbala. Many attending could be seen wearing masks that were handed out for free, but in precisely the kind of behaviour that health officials around the world have consistently and emphatically warned against, large numbers of the faithful crowded in very close proximity for hours on end.
Read More: PHOTOS: Iraq's Shia mark Ashura amid COVID-19
The coronavirus has infected over 26 million people worldwide and killed more than 864,000 according to government-reported data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The actual figures could be dramatically higher due to insufficient testing capabilities or underreporting.
Editing by John J. Catherine