COVID-19: Kurdistan Region records increase of over 750 daily infections
The Kurdistan Region’s Health Ministry recorded over 750 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, marking the second high in daily infections, since the pandemic began in the region.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s Health Ministry recorded over 750 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, marking the second high in daily infections, since the pandemic began in the region.
In its daily statement on COVID-19, the regional health ministry stated that health workers had conducted 6,804 tests across the autonomous region in the past 24 hours, and 754 were positive.
The official statement also explained that there had been 24 deaths during the same period: 12 in Sulaimani province, eight in Duhok, and three in Erbil.
The number of infections in the Kurdistan Region has reached 37,310, including 23,746 recoveries and 1,364 deaths.
It is important to note that a patient classified as a "recovery" means they are no longer being actively treated by health professionals, not that they have fully recovered.
Increasingly, medical experts recognize that some COVID-19 symptoms, such as chronic fatigue, often continue long after an individual's formal recovery and that various other symptoms, including significant lung damage, could be permanent.
Today’s increase comes as the region recorded its highest number of daily infections since early September, when 788 cases were recorded in a 24 hour period.
The Director General of the Erbil Health Department, Dr. Delovan Mohammad, held a press conference on Sunday, in which he announced that the provincial government would launch a five-day campaign to educate the public about the highly contagious disease and the measures which they need to take in order to protect themselves and their family against the disease.
The campaign involves distributing informational brochures and face masks among residents of Erbil province, as well as at crossings into the province.
The World Health Organization (WHO), alongside local non-governmental organizations, will take part in the campaign, Mohammad said. A total of 35 teams are being mobilized for the educational effort.
In late August, WHO initiated a "major COVID-19 prevention and containment campaign,” as it announced then. The campaign began in Sulaimani province, which was the initial epicenter of the coronavirus in the Kurdistan Region, due "mainly to its proximity and long borders with neighboring Iran,” the WHO statement said.
Read More: Highest virus death toll in Kurdistan Region, as WHO and KRG launch COVID awareness campaign
The Kurdistan Region has recently witnessed new surges in coronavirus cases across its provinces, particularly in Duhok and Erbil, which had enjoyed fewer infections in the past months.
Editing by Laurie Mylroie