COVID-19: Kurdistan Region total infections top 98,000 cases

Halgurd Sherwani 2020/12/07 15:21

A healthcare worker in the Kurdistan Region's capital Erbil prepares to give an injection to a COVID-19 patient, Nov. 3, 2020. (Photo: AFP/Safen Hamed)

Kurdistan Coroanvirus COVID-19 covid19 Health Kurdistan Region

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The total coronavirus infections across the Kurdistan Region reached over 98,000 cases as of Monday since the advent of the pandemic in early March.

In their daily coronavirus update, officials from the regional health ministry announced that, over the previous 24 hours, results for 372 patients returned positive for the disease out of more than 4,619 tests that were completed in that period.

In contrast, 176 patients recovered across the region, according to health authorities, raising the number of recoverees to 62,464 cases.

It is important to note that a “recovery” only indicates that a patient is no longer being actively treated by health professionals—not that they have fully recovered from the disease.

The Kurdistan Region has witnessed an overall decrease in the number of new daily virus infections, after weeks of alarming surges, reaching as high as 1,600 in a single day.

The region has seen 98,858 COVID-19 cases to date, per official figures.

Officials have attributed the recent spike in the number of patients primarily to the public’s failure to follow mandated health measures to stem the spread of the disease.

The Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) committee tasked with assessing the situation of the evolving health crisis recently issued a new set of rules for students enrolled in first, second, and twelfth grades whose in-person classes had previously been halted temporarily due to coronavirus spikes. According to the new announcement, their classes will now remain closed until Jan. 7.

Read More: Kurdistan announces over 330 COVID-19 cases; new decision on schools

The classes will be conducted online, as was already the case with the other grades.

As for higher education classes, those students in the scientific field will continue their studies via a hybrid combination of partial online classes with in-class sessions. Humanities programs, the statement noted, would continue their studies remotely.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany