ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Travel between the Kurdistan Region and Iraqi provinces has returned to normal after the Ministry of Interior on Sunday lifted a coronavirus weekend travel ban.
The Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Interior said the decision to allow the free-flow of traffic “with adherence to health guidelines” between Kurdish and Iraqi provinces will take effect immediately.
Wedding and venue halls can also reopen from Monday in Erbil and Duhok, both announced on Sunday, but they call on people to adhere to protective health measures, especially wearing masks.
Travel between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq was restricted in late March as part of measures to limit spread of the coronavirus. Traffic was banned Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with the exception of diplomatic missions and cargo trucks.
The ban impacted the tourism sector. Amal Jalal, the head of Kurdistan Region’s tourism board, told Rudaw that no tourist has entered from central and southern Iraq under the restrictions, though Sulaimani tourism officials said some 75,000 visitors celebrated the Eid al-Fitr holiday in the province.
The tourism industry has been hit hard by the pandemic. 2020 saw a 75 percent decrease in revenue from tourism compared to 2019.
A second wave of COVID-19 infections is subsiding in both the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, with their health ministries reporting fewer new cases daily. There have been a total of 160,530 coronavirus cases in the Kurdistan Region and 1,139,373 in all of Iraq.
Updated at 11:17 pm
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