COVID-19: Kurdistan Region’s total deaths top 2,700

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Over 2,700 deaths have been recorded as a result of COVID-19 complications in the Kurdistan Region since the advent of the pandemic, according to a statement from health authorities.

According to the regional health ministry, health workers conducted 5,393 tests during the past 24 hours, raising the total number of such tests to 710,197 since the outbreak of the disease in the Kurdistan Region in early March.

Of the tests conducted in the past 24 hours, the region recorded 765 infections. The total number has now reached 85,828 cases since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ministry also recorded 27 deaths over the past 24 hours, raising the total fatalities to 2,709 deaths.

Health officials say that over 53,000 people have recovered from the highly contagious disease, but it is important to note that “recovery” indicates that a patient is no longer being actively treated by health professionals—not that they have fully recovered from the disease.

Increasingly, medical experts recognize that COVID-19 symptoms, some of them quite serious, often continue long after an individual’s formal recovery and that various other symptoms, such as significant lung damage, could be permanent.

As the region continues to record new spikes of coronavirus cases, the health authorities have intensified efforts to raise awareness among the residents to stem the rapid spread.

“Please pay attention and listen to the awareness campaign,” Health Minister Saman Barzinji said at a press conference in the regional capital of Erbil, adding that the effort “is not the first of its kind, nor the last, and it is in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO).”

“The campaign includes distributing awareness leaflets with masks for citizens to get used to wearing them when they leave the house to carry out their daily work,” Barzinji explained.

“This campaign,” he continued, “is to prevent infection, but at the same time, health instructions and procedures must be adhered to when one becomes infected.”

These include directions on how an infected person deals with people around them, steps for self-isolation, and a review of specialized centers for the treatment of the coronavirus.

“Those who contract it, as well as carriers of the virus, must present themselves to a doctor who specializes in this disease and to receive the necessary treatment according to the recommendations and protocols of the Ministry of Health.”

Barzinji urged the public “not to listen to rumors, messages, and publications on social media that are not based on practical facts.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany