Halabja handed $420,000 from KRG fund to fight coronavirus

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani has granted Halabja's health department 500 million Iraqi dinars ($420,000) to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said on Saturday.

The allocation comes one day after Halabja's coronavirus control committee announced that the province was in "dire need" of medical supplies.

"Within the framework of the KRG's efforts to combat coronavirus, KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani ordered the allocation of 500 million Iraqi dinars to the health department of the province [Halabja]," read a statement from the KRG Ministry of Health.

The grant will pay for the medical supplies and equipment Halabja's hospitals need to fight the coronavirus pandemic, the ministry said.

The allocation comes from a KRG coronavirus relief budget, whose sum is unknown. The KRG had already given funds from the budget to all four of the Kurdistan Region's provinces, to boost health department coronavirus testing capabilities and medical supply levels.

When Erbil was suffering from a spike in coronavirus cases early last month, the KRG allocated one billion dinars ($840,000) in relief funds to the province's health department.

International coronavirus aid for the Kurdistan Region came from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) late last month, in the form of $627,000 worth of medical aid.

The aid had been sent after the KRG health ministry asked for assistance handling the pandemic, and included "six ambulances, 60 ventilators, and 7,000 COVID-19 test kits,” WHO's media department confirmed.

According to the health ministry, there have so far been 31,636 cases of coronavirus in the Kurdistan Region, including 20,193 recoveries and 1,186 deaths.

Halabja has recorded 1,015 cases, including 930 recoveries and 17 deaths.

The health ministry warned weeks ago that the Kurdistan Region could run into a shortage of medical supplies if the pandemic does not relent.