Germany provides COVID-19 personal protection gear to Kurdistan Region

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Thursday, Germany delivered a shipment of medical protection supplies to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus throughout the autonomous region of Iraq. 

The medical supplies were handed over to health officials by the KRG's Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCC), the body tasked with crisis management and response, to health officials, in a ceremony held in Erbil.

“This is just one of our projects during the spread of the coronavirus which, in coordination with the Ministry of Health, we were able to obtain medical supplies to combat the COVID-19 from the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW),” said JCC Director General Hoshang Mohammed in a joint press conference with Minister of Health Saman Barznji.

“The medical equipment provided was selected by the minister himself and are needed to support medical teams in hospitals and treatment facilities in the Kurdistan Region,” added Mohammed.     

Minister Barznji expressed his thanks for the JCC’s efforts in strengthening the infrastructure of COVI-19 treatment centers in the region and mentioned several future projects aimed at protecting health care professionals and residents at displacement camps across the Kurdistan Region.

Srwa Rasoul, Director of Resource Mobilization at the JCC, told Kurdistan 24, “The aid from the German THW consisted of 250,000 medical masks, 150,000 gloves, 15,000 protective goggles, 1,300 face shields, 50,000 disposable head-cover, and 50,000 medical boots.”

Rasoul explained that the JCC will be distributing the gear next week to the Ministry of Interior’s security forces, in charge of imposing the regionwide curfew at checkpoints, borders, and airports.

She also said that, during the holy month of Ramadhan, the German THW will also support the JCC in its distribution of dry food baskets and sanitary equipment to low-income families affected by the pandemic. 

“Since the diagnosis of the first case of COVID-19 in the Kurdistan Region, JCC offices in the Kurdistan Region’s provinces provided 3,500 dry food baskets, 3,000 boxes of sanitation equipment, and 3,000 baskets of children formula to low-income families and families who were affected by the flash flood in Duhok province,” added Rasoul.

The JCC is a crisis response center the KRG established to coordinate between relevant government agencies in the KRG's response to humanitarian crises. Its mandate is to prepare and coordinate between the KRG’s ministries and institutions to respond to both natural and man-made disasters.

Editing by John J. Catherine