ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Not enough Iraqis are getting vaccinated to ward off a possible fourth wave of the coronavirus, the parliament’s crisis cell warned on Tuesday.
"There is a real decrease in the number of cases from the third wave, but fears of it resurging in the country in a fourth wave is increasing, as a result of which the number of cases and deaths will rise,” MP Jawad al-Moussawi, rapporteur for the crisis cell, told state media.
"The percentage of vaccinated people at the present time does not look encouraging for the possibility to see a decrease in the number of infections, which depends on the increase in the percentage of vaccinated people to 60 percent," he added.
According to the lawmaker, 2 million Iraqis are vaccinated, just five percent of the population.
On Tuesday, the Iraqi Ministry of Health announced the registration of 8,778 new infections, and 75 deaths from the coronavirus.
In late July and early August, Iraq recorded its highest daily new infections of more than 10,000 per day. The numbers have started to drop over the past week, but Moussawi said the decrease “is not significant, as long as there is a lack of testing."
Iraq has opened mobile vaccination clinics in heavily populated areas where they see low compliance with health measures and high infection rates and has said they are seeing some success.
“The Ministry of Health's plan to increase the number of vaccinated by increasing the number of vaccination sites, field vaccination teams, and targeting residential areas with densely populated areas contributed to an increase in the number of vaccinated," said Ruba Falah Hassan, a health ministry spokesperson, on Tuesday.
"The ministry is determined to continue with new procedures that contribute significantly to Iraq's attainment of immunity, which is 60% of the population getting the vaccine,” she added, while urging people to continue to adhere to preventive measures such as wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, and sterilization, especially during this week’s Ashura holy day that traditionally sees millions of Shiite pilgrims visit Iraq’s Karbala.
The Basra Health Department said they had a great turnout of citizens at the al-Shula Centre, where residents received their first and second doses of the vaccine against COVID-19.
Since the start of the pandemic, Iraq has recorded a total of 1,793,372 cases, including 1,615,773 recoveries, and 19,815 deaths.
