Iraq, China officials talk COVID-19 vaccine trials, as Iraq cases cross 290,000
The health ministry stated that it had conducted nearly 20,000 tests in the last 24 hours.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi health minister Hassan al-Tamimi on Sunday discussed with the Chinese envoy cooperation on coronavirus vaccine trials, as virus cases crossed 290,000 in the Middle Eastern country, among the top 20 nations worst-hit by the pandemic.
"We discussed with the Chinese side strengthening cooperation on conducting the third phase of clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine," said Tamimi, following his meeting with the Chinese ambassador to Iraq, Zhang Tao.
According to a ministry statement regarding the gathering, the Chinese ambassador expressed "his country's support for all frameworks of cooperation and coordination in the health sector that would help eradicate the coronavirus."
China—where the virus emerged in late 2019 and from where it spread across the globe—is among the leading countries working on a COVID-19 vaccine.
Also on Sunday, the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment announced 3,531 new coronavirus infections over the previous 24 hours, with the total number crossing 290,000.
The ministry stated that health workers had conducted 19,353 tests in the last 24 hours, making for a total of 1,902,401 tests carried out since the outbreak of the virus in Iraq.
According to the ministry, the number of recoveries is nearly 225,000, while fatalities have exceeded 8,000.
Reburying the Dead
On September 7, Iraqi authorities relaxed measures that dictated people who died from the coronavirus were to be buried in dedicated cemeteries, due to virus transmission fears.
Since then, families of victims have worked to exhume the bodies of their relatives and rebury them in tombs of their choosing.
According to an Agence France-Presse report on Saturday, many of those Iraqi authorities buried in the special cemeteries came from other parts of the country.
"But the first re-burials [in Najaf] proved chaotic," the report noted.
A number of families on Thursday arrived at one cemetery in Najaf and brought their own equipment to dig up relatives and rebury them in family graves.
"There were no medical professionals or cemetery guides on site to help families locate or properly excavate the bodies," AFP reported.
In some cases, Islamic burial rites seem to have been ignored, as some families noticed the bodies of their relatives were not covered by a white shroud inside the coffin.
This reportedly led to harsh criticism against militia groups that were responsible for the logistics and burial operations.
"The grave-diggers don't have expertise or the right materials," AFP cited the brother of one victim as saying on site. "They don't even know how to locate the graves."
Editing by Khrush Najari