COVID-19: Over 4,000 new infections in Iraq as doctors face violence

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Friday, Iraq announced 4,177 new coronavirus infections and 74 deaths as the national human rights commission warned that recent violence against doctors treating patients for the highly-contagious disease could cause yet another so-called brain drain in the medical field in the country, just as it is the throes a major health crisis.

The Ministry of Health and Environment said it had conducted 22,634 tests in that time period and had newly classified 3,865 patients as no longer requiring active treatment.

Since the first known infection in Iraq was confirmed in February, 223,612 cases have been recorded 6,814 of them fatal. Over 51,000 patients are currently being treated in hospitals and medical clinics.

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. On Friday, the Kurdistan Region’s fatalities surpassed 1,000 deaths since the onset of the outbreak in the region.

Read More: COVID-19 deaths in Kurdistan Region surpass 1,000

Violence against health professionals

The Iraqi Human Rights Commission warned in a statement earlier in the day that the absence of protection for doctors and other medical staff, who have recently faced attacks and threats with increasing regularity at the workplace, could lead to them leaving Iraq in large numbers. This has happened multiple times since the fall of the former regime in 2003 when doctors, in particular, were killed or otherwise targeted by militias, insurgent groups, or kidnapped for ransom.

The commission statement came following footage circulating on Iraqi social media that appeared to show a doctor being beaten by several men, allegedly relatives of a coronavirus patient who had died in the southern province of Najaf. The attackers reportedly blamed the death on the doctor’s negligence.

“The violations on the doctors and health staff are a flagrant violation of human rights,” a commission official told Shafaq News, calling for stronger legislative efforts to guarantee the protection of medical staff.

The commission warned that failure to protect them would likely lead to a wave of migration of health care professionals abroad and that Iraq’s shaky health infrastructure would be near collapse if immediate measures are not taken.

The highly-contagious disease has infected over 24.5 million people worldwide and killed more than 833,000 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