ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Sulaimani authorities released 116 people from quarantine on Thursday after doctors concluded those under observation had not contracted the coronavirus.
The patients were held at the Sanarya tourist village just west of Sulaimani city for a period of two weeks after returning from Iran, where a major outbreak of COVID-19 has killed at least 124 people and infected more than 3,500 as of Friday afternoon.
Another group will be released from quarantine on Friday having shown no symptoms over the 14-day incubation period, Dr. Yad Naqishbandi, spokesman for Sulaimani health directorate, told Rudaw.
Kurdish and Iraqi authorities quickly closed their borders with Iran and canceled direct flights serving Iranian cities once the scale of the outbreak became clear.
Iraqi citizens returning from Iran were required to spend two weeks in quarantine before they are permitted to return home.
As of Thursday, at least 283 people had been released from quarantine in Soran, northern Erbil province, according to the local health directorate.
A second group of 111 people are expected to be released on Friday, the Soran health officials said.
According to Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) health ministry figures, some 2,303 people remain in quarantine across 27 sites.
Besides quarantining, the KRG has also shut down schools, reduced working hours across government institutions, and banned large public gatherings in the hope of containing the spread of coronavirus.
There are currently 40 confirmed cases across Iraq, according to data from Iraqi and KRG health authorities.
All eight cases in the Kurdistan Region were recorded in the city of Sulaimani, where one person has died. Two more with pre-existing illnesses have also died in Baghdad.
First detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019, the novel coronavirus has since spread to at least 56 countries and territories, infecting at least 90,000 people worldwide and killing more than 3,000.
