As coronavirus spreads, Kurdish authorities restrict Iran border access

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdistan Region’s relevant authorities, including the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Health, met today to discuss strategies to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Kurdistan Region. 

“We ensure the people of Kurdistan that the Kurdistan Regional Government and its institutions will be at their service around the clock in order to prevent the spread of this virus,” Reber Ahmed, Interior Minister, told reporters in a press conference in Erbil. 

He said that they have urged Baghdad and the international community to help the KRG in fighting the virus.

“We have called aid from the federal government [of Iraq] and the UN-affiliated organizations, especially the WHO,” he said. 

Ahmed also said that only three KRG border crossings with Iran will allow people to return to Kurdistan: Haji Omaran, Bashmakh and Parwezkhan. All other border crossings will be closed.

The minister clarified that, “All the measures are aimed at self-protection.”

Minister of Health Saman Barzanji said that they have begun handing out brochures and publishing videos to inform people of the symptoms of the diseases and how to avoid it. 

Despite the quarantine of several hundred people in the town of Soran, both ministers reasserted that no cases have been recorded in Kurdistan Region.