COVID-19: Iraqi health minister warns of 'very large wave' due to lack of mask-wearing

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi Minister of Health and Environment Hassan al-Tamimi has warned that Iraq is on the verge of a "very large wave" of coronavirus infections, including critical cases, and deaths as a result of public commitment to preventive health measures like wearing masks being "almost non-existent in the streets of Iraq."

The rate of new infections has increased in the recent period throughout Iraq, with the exception of the autonomous Kurdistan Region, which has its own health ministry and has seen a relative lull in the numbers of new cases.

After federal health officials had been announcing fewer than a thousand daily infections over the past month – far lower than in the proceeding months – the current daily tally is now exceeding this rate. 

Yesterday, Iraq recorded 1,150 new cases of the pandemic, bringing the total confirmed cases across all provinces including the Kurdistan Region to 624,222, including 13,091 deaths.

To date, no patients have yet been confirmed to have contracted various newly-mutated variants of the virus that have been detected on multiple continents.

Read More: COVID-19: Iraq bans travel to 20 countries with new coronavirus strain

In a press conference held in Baghdad on Wednesday evening, Timimi expressed "deep concerns" about the elevated numbers and their potential wide-ranging effects.

"We warn that Iraq is on the verge of a very large wave of infections, after the practice of wearing masks has become almost non-existent in the streets of Iraq. This has greatly increased critical and severe cases from 1.5 percent to more than 2.6 percent, and this is a dangerous sign."

Tamimi expected that the country would witness "an increase in the number of infections, deaths, and severe cases," indicating that the percentage of citizens entering hospitals due to the pandemic had until recently been no more than 6 percent, but "it is now much greater than this number."

Iraq recorded its first coronavirus infection in February 2020, before the pandemic spread to the entire country amid a financial crisis that erupted due to the pandemic-caused collapse of international oil prices.

The Minister of Health also said that Iraq is expecting "the arrival of anti-virus vaccines after the cooling equipment and the logistics for the vaccines have arrived."

Iraq approved three vaccines through the State Company for Marketing Drugs and Medical Appliances (Kimadia), which are Pfizer, Astrazeneca, and Sinopharm.

According to Minister Timimi, "these vaccines will be available in Iraq at the end of February."

Editing by John J. Catherine