ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Sulaimani province, the Kurdistan Region’s COVID-19 epicentre, is facing a daunting challenge, as many of the province’s health workers go on strike to protest not receiving their salaries, right when the number of active virus cases nears a thousand. The Kurdistan Region’s health ministry confirmed Monday 166 new cases of the novel coronavirus and seven deaths in the last 24 hours. Six of the deaths and 127 of the cases are reported to be in Sulaimani province. Many of the province’s health workers have been on strike for ten days, having not been paid in more than a month. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) delayed the salaries of its civil servants, including health workers, after Baghdad stopped sending the Region’s budget share on time, oil prices dropped dramatically and the KRG’s local income was harmed by the coronavirus-related lockdown. The KRG health ministry is grappling with the effects of the strike on their health system. Dr Haval Osman, a senior health official in Sulaimani, told Rudaw on Monday that some 21 of the people on ventilators in the province require around the clock care, but facilities only have four nurses to look after them. “We need one nurse for each ventilator which requires an around-the-clock monitor. However, we [currently] only have four nurses to monitor these 21 patients,” he said. Sulaimani health officials have called for a seven-day lockdown “to slow down the wave,” warning that the province could face an unprecedented situation if serious measures are not implemented. “In the beginning of the new wave of coronavirus, the number of cases were not as high as now. However, when 100 and 80 cases were suddenly recorded. This was a warning. If it goes like this, definitely the records will increase,” Dr Herish Saeed Salim deputy head of Sulaimani health directorate, told Rudaw on Monday. One striking organization has decided to spare coronavirus responders from their call to strike. Hawzheen Osman, head of Health Syndicate office in Sulaimani, told Rudaw that the syndicate has “decided to boycott health centers except for coronavirus hospitals and emergency hospitals.” One coronavirus death was reported in Erbil on Monday, with an additional 32 new cases also recorded in the same 24-hour period. Halabja recorded five new cases and Duhok two. This brings the total number of COVID-19 cases in the Region to 2,437. Of this, 54 have died and 1,036 recovered. The Region currently has 1,383 active cases. Sulaimani province has recorded 1,602 cases so far, Of this, 47 have died and 619 have recovered. The province has 936 active cases, and at least 21 of them require intense care. With reporting by Horvan Rafaat from Sulaimani
