COVID-19: Kurdistan Region announces curfew during Eid holiday
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The autonomous Kurdistan Region announced on Wednesday it had decided to impose a three-day curfew during the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday as an anti-coronavirus measure.
During a press conference in Erbil, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) spokesperson Jutyar Adel stressed the importance of the public adhering to the curfew and other preventive health measures put in place at the beginning of the Ramadan in early April.
Read More: KRG marks start of Ramadan, urges public to follow COVID-19 health restrictions
Eid al-Fitr is the three-day celebration at the end of Ramadan and is a traditional time of gathering with family and friends.
The KRG’s coronavirus task force said Friday that travel between the Kurdistan Region’s provinces will be halted on the last night of Ramadan until the third day of the feast.
The KRG Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs announced at the onset of the month of fasting that it would allow the reopening of local mosques, closed as part of efforts to stem the tide of new infections of the highly contagious disease.
Read More: Kurdistan Region announces Ramadan schedule, 'tight restrictions' to reopen mosques
He went on to speak about the decision by KRG officials to suspend all flights to and from India following a shockingly high spike in new cases and fatalities in the South Asian nation and to quarantine any traveler recently in India for a period of 14 days.
Adel explained that the regional government is now awaiting an assessment by its Ministry of Health to decide whether or not to open schools for in-person classes.
Regarding the specifics of the Eid curfew, Adel added that the Ministry of Interior would release details as the date approaches.
On Wednesday, the regional health ministry recorded 1,031 new coronavirus cases and 16 deaths over the previous 24 hours.
The new numbers brought the total infections to date in Kurdistan Region to 149,140 and its fatalities to just over 4,000.
This story was updated on April 30, 2021 with new information from the KRG coronavirus task force.
Editing by John J. Catherine