ERBIL, Kurdistan Region- The Kurdistan Regional Government's Health Ministry has announced the first confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Region.
"In the course of the past 24 hours, tests were conducted for 24 suspects. As a result, four people from Sulaimani tested positive for Covid-19 including a family of three and another woman who have all returnees from Iran," the KRG Health Ministry announced in a statement on Sunday.
"All of those tested positive for coronavirus were in quarantine," the ministry said. "They are all in good health and have been put at a hospital designated for those being affected by the disease."
The coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019. The virus has since spread to more than 30 countries and has infected at least 80,000 people. Particular hotspots outside China include South Korea, Japan, Iran, and Italy.
Including the four cases of Sulaimani, Iraq has so far recorded 17 cases of the virus – one case in Najaf, one in Babil, six in Baghdad, and another five in Kirkuk, according to the latest figure from the Iraqi health ministry. All of them had recently returned from Iran – the epicenter of the Middle East outbreak.
Iran has quickly become a hub for the virus, with cases in Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Canada, Georgia, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates tracing back to the country.
Eleven people have died from coronavirus in Iran in the last 24 hours, bringing the country's death toll to 54, a health ministry official announced on Sunday, as the country struggles to contain the outbreak.
The total number of confirmed cases in Iran has risen to 978, Ministry of Health spokesperson Kianoush Jahanpour announced at a daily press conference providing updates on the outbreak, with 385 new cases of the virus confirmed since yesterday.
KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has said it was "unrealistic" to expect the Region would remain immune to the virus.
"Unfortunately, coronavirus has become a problem. It has not just reached the region, but entire world. It was unrealistic to expect that it would not reach the Kurdistan Region. We have done..whatever needed to confront and lessen its influence on the people," Barzani told Kurdish reporters in Amman, Jordan on Sunday.
"Our people have been given instructions by the relevant ministries and I hope everyone commits to them. Self-protection is the best solution to counter it," he added.
Commenting on the four people who have tested positive for the virus, Barzani said "I wish they are safe and other people protect themselves in order to prevent further breakout of the epidemic in the Kurdistan Region.
Local officials assured the people of Sulaimani that they have taken maximum measures to block further outbreak of the disease.
"We are calling on the people of Sulaimani to help inform us of those who return to the Kurdistan Region from Iran through smuggling ways,"said Wasta Hassan, head of Sulaimani Asayesh.
"Whoever has returned from Iran has been put in quarantine and no one is let home," Sabah Hawrami, head of Sulaimani General Health Department told reporters.
"Our forces are on full alert on the borders not allowing smugglers to bring in people through smuggling ways back into the Kurdistan Region," Hassan added.
Sulaimani Governor Abu Bakir for his part said they will do their best to keep the area safe through regulations including the closure of public and crowded places.
