Baghdad businesses wither amid coronavirus lockdown
BAGHDAD — Millions of Iraqis are reliant on informal employment and have little job security, their situation already precarious before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country.
As news of confirmed COVID-19 cases rolled in, national and provincial authorities instituted a series of movement restrictions from March 13 in a bid to keep the virus as at bay as possible and prevent strain on Iraq's already struggling healthcare system. Non-essential businesses were forced to close, and former customers told to remain at home unless absolutely necessary.
Baghdad's poorer residents have been hard hit as their income dries up.
A young Baghdad resident named Huda lives in cramped conditions, sharing a small house with six other family members.
Once selling tea, rice, and chicken steak to hungry customers, her family no longer has anyone to sell to. Huda needs medication for a skin condition, her mother said, but the family can't afford to pay for it.
"This is my daughter, she's ill," her mother told Rudaw. "Look at the back of her head, we can't pay for the medicine she needs."
They now rely on food donations to survive, she added.
More formal businesses providing people with everyday essentials are also taking a hit. Cashiers at one Baghdad market say business is far from bustling.
"Many routine customers return 35 to 40 percent of the things they want to buy at the till, because they can't afford them," said cashier Ahmed Jasim.
Unemployment levels in Iraq have jumped from 20% to 57% amid the lockdown, an Iraqi planning ministry official told Rudaw.
Iraq has officially recorded 1,512 cases of COVID-19 so far, including 953 recoveries and 82 deaths.
Reporting by Mustafa Goran
As news of confirmed COVID-19 cases rolled in, national and provincial authorities instituted a series of movement restrictions from March 13 in a bid to keep the virus as at bay as possible and prevent strain on Iraq's already struggling healthcare system. Non-essential businesses were forced to close, and former customers told to remain at home unless absolutely necessary.
Baghdad's poorer residents have been hard hit as their income dries up.
A young Baghdad resident named Huda lives in cramped conditions, sharing a small house with six other family members.
Once selling tea, rice, and chicken steak to hungry customers, her family no longer has anyone to sell to. Huda needs medication for a skin condition, her mother said, but the family can't afford to pay for it.
"This is my daughter, she's ill," her mother told Rudaw. "Look at the back of her head, we can't pay for the medicine she needs."
They now rely on food donations to survive, she added.
More formal businesses providing people with everyday essentials are also taking a hit. Cashiers at one Baghdad market say business is far from bustling.
"Many routine customers return 35 to 40 percent of the things they want to buy at the till, because they can't afford them," said cashier Ahmed Jasim.
Unemployment levels in Iraq have jumped from 20% to 57% amid the lockdown, an Iraqi planning ministry official told Rudaw.
Iraq has officially recorded 1,512 cases of COVID-19 so far, including 953 recoveries and 82 deaths.
Reporting by Mustafa Goran