ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A national health and safety committee decided on Saturday to impose restrictions on movement and social gathering in Iraq as cases of the coronavirus in the country grow in number, state media has reported.
A curfew will be in place from 8 pm to 5 am for two weeks beginning February 18, a source told state media of the national committee’s decision.
Schools, universities, salons, parks, wedding and funeral venues and sites of religious congregation will be closed from February 15 until further notice, the source said, with schools and universities to return to virtual teaching.
An official statement on said measures has not been released, but Dr Jawad al-Musawi, a Sairoon bloc MP and a member of the parliament's crisis cell, praised the decision to temporarily close schools and universities.
Iraq’s health ministry expressed concern over the rise in coronavirus case numbers in a statement released Saturday.
“At a time when coronavirus infections are escalating, a second wave of the pandemic may be harsher than the first,” the statement read.
The health ministry also criticized the decision by some to hold large gatherings “without turning to the gravity of these gatherings on the growing extent of the pandemic and its serious consequences for the health of citizens.”
Coronavirus cases have spiked in Iraq in recent weeks, with 2,190 cases in 24 hours announced by the health ministry on Saturday. The country has so far registered over 600,000 cases, according to the ministry.
Though daily coronavirus cases in the Kurdistan Region have been in the double digits for some weeks, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) health ministry also warned of a new wave of coronavirus infections amid the rapid spread of new variants worldwide.
“Unfortunately there is a feeling among citizens that there is no coronavirus anymore, and that there is no risk to people’s lives,” read the KRG health ministry statement.
A curfew for the Kurdistan Region has yet to be decided upon, Aso Hawezi, a spokesperson for the KRG health ministry told Rudaw English on Saturday, but "decisions could change according to the circumstances.”
Last month, Iraq announced a travel ban to prevent the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus first found in the United Kingdom. No new cases of the variant have yet been registered in Iraq.
The president of Iran, the country neighboring Iraq, warned on Saturday of a "fourth outbreak" of the disease in the country, according to a presidency statement. Tehran is to impose new measures to combat spread of the virus as the Persian New Year approaches, president Hassan Rouhani said during a meeting with the National Task Force Against Coronavirus.
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