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Iraq
Iraqi health ministry spokesperson Saif al-Badr speaks to Rudaw in Baghdad’s Sadr City on August 13, 2021. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Mobile vaccination clinics are gaining popularity in Baghdad’s heavily populated areas after numbers of new coronavirus cases spiked in the country and ahead of a major Islamic holiday, the health ministry spokesperson said on Friday.
The Iraqi Ministry of Health started a mobile vaccination campaign on Tuesday in areas where they see low compliance with health measurements and high numbers of infections, Saif al-Badr told Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz from Sadr City on the fourth day of the campaign.
Sadr city is a densely populated, low-income suburb in northeast Baghdad.
The mobile clinics are “a mini-hospital. It has all the equipment needed to store and deliver the vaccines,” Badr said.
“There is more than one site. It’s not only this mobile clinic in the streets and alleys of the highly populated Sadr City,” he added, noting that a high number of cases and deaths have been recorded in this specific area.
There is widespread vaccine skepticism in Iraq, fueled by disbelief in the coronavirus and distrust in the government – even though more than 19,000 people have died after contracting the virus.
Iraq received around 500,000 doses of vaccines on Thursday and is expected to receive a similar amount on Saturday and Sunday, according to Badr.
The country is in a third wave of infections as the more contagious Delta variant spreads, reporting record-high number in in late July. Iraq recorded 10,243 cases and 64 deaths in the past 24 hours.
Next week, Iraq’s Shiites will mark Ashura, which traditionally draws millions of pilgrims to Karbala to mourn the death of Imam Hussein, a Shiite leader and the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, who was killed in a battle fought at Karbala in 680 AD.
The upsurge in cases is a “threat” to the healthcare system, officials warned last month.
The Kurdistan Region's Ministry of Health has also warned of the severity of the current spike in new infections. It recorded over 3,000 daily cases in July, the highest daily record since the start of the pandemic.
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