Health authorities escalate their warnings as coronavirus crosses a new threshold in Kurdistan

Mustafa Shilani 2021/03/27 16:24

The rate of infection increased from 2.2 to 10 percent in Erbil, which according to health standards should not exceed 5 percent. (Photo: Kurdistan 24)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s health officials, on Saturday warned of the current increase rate of the coronavirus in the region after recording more than 400 new cases in the past 24 hours.

According to a statement issued by the health ministry Kurdistan Region it recorded 417 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and five deaths in a single day: 79 in Erbil, 322 in Duhok, and 16 in Sulaimania.

The new cases bring the total number of infections in the Region to 118,554, including 3,632 deaths, since the pandemic began.

On Friday, the Kurdistan Region recorded 725 new cases of coronaiirus.

The director of Erbil Health, Dlovan Mohammed, earlier today in an interview with Kurdistan 24 said that the Ministry of Health has been directed to tighten preventive measures as the number of infections increased.

Mohammed explained that the rate of infection jumped from 2.2 to 10 percent in Erbil, which according to health standards should not exceed 5 percent.

The health director pointed out that more than 1,000 doctors and other medical personnel in Erbil province have been infected with the virus, creating a shortage of staff in some health facilities.

“COVID-19 treatment centers are witnessing a rapid increase of patients and still the people are not adhering to the preventive measures, and health guidelines,” Mohammed added.

Regarding a possible curfew, Mohammed said that “at this point there is no decision to re-impose curfew, however we requested that the preventive measures be tightened.”

More than 43,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the Kurdistan Region on Friday after landing in Iraq’s capital a day earlier.

Editing by Joanne Stocker-Kelly