Five men infected with COVID-19 in the city of Sulaimani died of virus-related complications on Thursday, confirmed the Kurdistan Regional Government health ministry.

"Five more patients diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, who had been placed in the intensive care unit, died today, aging 80, 78, 70, 69 and 48," reads a heath Ministry statement.

This is the highest number of pandemic-related deaths in a single day in the Region since the onset of the outbreak of the virus in early March.

The Region has a total of 35 coronavirus deaths as of Thursday afternoon, out of which 31 took place in Sulaimani province and four in Erbil province.

By Zhelwan Z. Wali

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Erbil authorities are warning that they can longer conduct random COVID-19 tests for Erbil residents unless the government makes additional funds available to purchase medical essentials.

"Each COVID-19 test costs $100," Hemin Qadir, deputy governor of Erbil told Rudaw on Thursday, adding that the Erbil health department is financially incapable of conducting tests free of charge any longer.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has so far allocated budgets disbursements in different phases for the four provinces of Erbil, Sulaimani, Duohk and Halabja to undertake coronavirus tests free of charge to the people. 

The KRG announced on Wednesday that it would allocate five billion Iraqi dinars ($4.2 million) to the Health Ministry in their battle against the coronavirus.

"From the budget the KRG has allocated, we have asked for a portion of it in order for us to be able to continue the tests and buy more medical supplies," Qadir said.

Qadir urged that the public needs to understand that they will have to take measures to keep themselves safe.

"Corona has spread across all the neighborhoods." Qadir said. "Erbil's situation has not [yet] reached a dangerous point, though it is abnormal," 

Qadir added that the Erbil Health Department carries out 250-300 tests on a daily basis these days.

Since the onset of the outbreak of the pandemic in Erbil province, more than 44,000 tests have been conducted, he added. 

Erbil province has so far seen 504 cases, of which 247 have recovered and four have died with 251 cases remaining active.

With a total of 1,067 cases, out of which 795 remain active, Sulaimani province is the epicenter of the coronavirus in the Kurdistan Region.

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 Reporting by Zhelwan Z. Wali and Mahdi Faraj

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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — All members of the Kurdistan Region Parliament will be quarantined inside their homes for two weeks after four tests came back positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, including a parliamentarian and three employees.

"The infected persons identified in the parliament must have come into contact with MPs," Galawezh Obeid, a member of the parliament's Health Committee told Rudaw on Thursday. "Therefore, we decided to halt the work of the parliament for two weeks, and that the MPs and parliament employees must self-isolate and quarantine themselves inside their homes," said Obeid.

A day after one parliament staffer tested positive for COVID-19, the Kurdistan Parliament carried out tests for 197 MPs and employees in the parliament, announcing Wednesday that "several" of them had also came back positive, including MP Bapir Kamala, head of the Sardam Bloc, as well as three employees.

"The reason for the transmission of the coronavirus into the parliament is because MPs have come into contact with the public," Obeid added. 

Commenting on the possibility of renewed lockdown measures in response to a surge in cases, Obeid said she was against the idea. Instead of a curfew, Obeid said public awareness should be raised about the importance of "self-protection" measures.

"A curfew does not favor the public as it is leaving negative impacts on the livelihood of the people," she said.

 

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Reporting by Zhelwan Z. Wali

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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — After two judges were found to have contracted the novel coronavirus on Thursday, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) decided to shut the Erbil Court for two weeks.

"Two infections were recorded inside the Erbil court and they were both judges," Judge Ibrahim Khoshnaw, head of the Erbil Court, confirmed to Rudaw.

"Therefore court will be closed for two weeks and all employees will be quarantined," Khoshnaw added 

The closure comes a day after the Kurdistan Region parliament was closed due to positive tests of employees there.

A total of 1,711 people have contracted COVID-19 in the Kurdistan Region's four provinces of Erbil, Sulaimani, Duhok and Halabja since early March. Of this number, 551 have recovered, 30 have died and 1,130 cases remain active.

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The Kurdistan Regional Government advises anyone in the Kurdistan Region displaying coronavirus symptoms to call its emergency hotline on 122. This service is available in Kurdish and Arabic 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. More information can be found on the government’s website.

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