26-02-2020
23:30
KRG criticizes Baghdad for failing to quarantine Iraqis returning from Iran
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) criticized Baghdad officials on Wednesday, accusing them of failing to quickly quarantine Iraqis returning from Iran.
“This disease has gotten quite close to us. And we must be honest with our people, a large number of Iraqis or the majority who return to Iraq undergo some sort of testing and are sent back home. They never get quarantined,” KRG interior minister Rebar Ahmed told a press conference in Erbil.
“Unlike them, we have decided to quarantine our people who return from Iran and other countries that have also been gripped by the virus.”
Baghdad’s failure to properly manage border crossings is “making problem for us as well,” he said.
Ahmed reiterated the KRG has taken “maximum necessary measures” against the outbreak of coronavirus at border crossings and inside the Kurdistan Region itself.
“We will not tolerate a single negligence from any KRG official and the governors have been given authority to take necessary measures against any negligence,” Ahmed added.
The coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan on December 31 and has killed at least 2,770 people and infecting more than 81,288 worldwide.
Iraq’s health ministry confirmed its first case in the holy city of Najaf on Monday. Four more cases of the disease, all members of the same family in Kirkuk, were confirmed on Tuesday.
“We are urging our people not to visit Kirkuk and Najaf. They should also limit travel and traffic inside the Kurdistan Region, unless very necessary,” Ahmed said.
Iraqis currently in Iran must undergo a 14-day monitoring period after crossing the border before they are allowed to return home, and will also be checked in their homes by medical teams, according to an order issued by the Iraqi Ministry of Health and the Environment.
Furthermore, Iraqis are not permitted to visit Iran unless they are part of a diplomatic delegation, and the federal government has suspended all Iraqi Airlines flights serving Najaf and Baghdad routes to Iran until further notice.
The KRG has also quarantined hundreds of people newly returned from Iran in two hotels in Soran, and has barred visitors from local hospital.
Dr. Fatah Hawrami, a general health practitioner who took part in a Rudaw panel discussion on Monday, urged the KRG’s Ministry of Health to take every necessary measure to contain the outbreak.
“On a high level, there must a very strong coordination with Baghdad,” Hawrami said. “Because we noticed cases like people are easily allowed to enter Iraq from some of their crossings while the KRG has taken serious measures.”
“Both sides must deal with the virus in the same way. There should not be any differences,” he said.
Dr. Saman Barzinji, the KRG’s health minister, told reporters: “In the course of the past 24 hours, 1,734 people have returned from Iran to the Kurdistan Region. All of them are being quarantined at 15 different locations.”
“So far, we have prepared 170 beds across the Kurdistan Region for any case if happens. We will increase the number if the number of suspects and patients go up,” he added.
15:26
Kurdistan Region adds five more countries to entry visa suspension list
Kurdistan Region authorities have announced a suspension to the issue of entry visas to five more countries, all of which were named by an Iraq visa entry ban earlier today.
Citizens of Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Italy and Singapore can no longer get a visa or enter the Region “for the sake of preserving the health security of Kurdistan Region,” according to a Wednesday decree from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Ministry of Interior.
The decree made no mention of the entry visa suspension announcement made by Iraqi authorities earlier today, despite the ban applying to the same countries.
Today’s announcement did not include Iran and China, whose citizens are already banned from entering the the Kurdistan Region.
The KRG decree also bans holders of Iraqi passports from travelling to the seven coronavirus-hit countries through the Kurdistan Region.
Residents of the Region who have travelled to the mentioned countries after January 1, 2020, will undergo a medical checkup on arrival before being quarantined, the statement added.
“Foreign citizens who have visited these countries as mentioned will not be allowed to enter the Kurdistan Region, be it through border crossings, or checkpoints between the Kurdistan Region and other provinces of Iraq,” the KRG statement added.
Official delegations from the listed countries will be screened for symptoms of the virus upon arrival.
The step up in precautions being taken in the Middle East, where incidence rates are growing, comes as rates of infection in China, the site of outbreak origin, have slowed down.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that there are collectively more coronavirus cases outside of China than inside the country. Until today, the majority of cases were found in the east Asian nation.
13:32
Iran coronavirus death toll climbs to 19: health ministry
Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour. Photo: IRNA
Incidences and deaths from coronavirus continue to climb in Iran, with 139 people confirmed to have contracted the virus. Nineteen have died as a result, according to the Iranian health ministry.
Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour provided the update at a daily, 1pm press conference in Tehran.
Iran’s Kurdish provinces of Lorestan and Kermanshah have each recorded a case of the infection, Jahanpour said. Khuzestan, a province bordering Iraq, has one confirmed case, while the Sistan and Baluchestan province has two.
Seven testing centers are currently operational, Jahanpour said, with their number set to increase to 22 next week.
President Hassan Rouhani said today in a cabinet meeting that there has been “no decision to quarantine any city in the county and any decision would be issued by the crisis response unit on coronavirus,” and urged business as usual in defiance of American calls for Iran to be honest about the extent of illness in the country.
“The Americans and our enemies … their sanctions and propaganda have always wanted to stop the economic activity and place people in suffering … this issue of virus should not become an excuse in the hands of our adversaries to stop our activities and production … all the people and the producers and factories will continue to operate and this must continue,” Rouhani said at the meeting.
13:18
Kurdistan Region tourism, travel restrictions take effect
The Kurdistan Region’s tourism sector has been told to temporarily suspend intake of foreign visitors amid the spread of coronavirus in the Middle East, Erbil Governor Firsat Sofi said in a Wednesday press conference.
Vehicle entry from Iran into the Kurdistan Region is also prohibited, with the exception of fuel tankers, whose drivers will be subject to screening for the virus.
Bashdar, an Iraqi Kurdish driver at Haji Omaran border crossing, told Rudaw’s Bakhtyar Qadir that contact between Kurdistan Region and Iranian drivers has been prohibited by Kurdish border authorities.
Drivers gathered at the Kurdistan Region-Iran border crossing of Haji Omaran, waiting for an expected Erbil provincial council decision for the crossing to be reopened.
Around 1000 Kurdish tourists who have returned from Iran in recent days are being quarantined in hotels in Soran, Rawanduz and Jundiyan, among other places, according to Qadir.
Movement across the border is not completely restricted, with Iranians in the Kurdistan Region who arrived before the outbreak permitted to go back to Iran, Qadir said.
Vehicle entry from Iran into the Kurdistan Region is also prohibited, with the exception of fuel tankers, whose drivers will be subject to screening for the virus.
Bashdar, an Iraqi Kurdish driver at Haji Omaran border crossing, told Rudaw’s Bakhtyar Qadir that contact between Kurdistan Region and Iranian drivers has been prohibited by Kurdish border authorities.
Drivers gathered at the Kurdistan Region-Iran border crossing of Haji Omaran, waiting for an expected Erbil provincial council decision for the crossing to be reopened.
Around 1000 Kurdish tourists who have returned from Iran in recent days are being quarantined in hotels in Soran, Rawanduz and Jundiyan, among other places, according to Qadir.
Movement across the border is not completely restricted, with Iranians in the Kurdistan Region who arrived before the outbreak permitted to go back to Iran, Qadir said.
09:39
Iraq to suspend entry visas for seven coronavirus-hit countries
An Iraqi student shows an anti-government demonstrator how to wear a protective mask against the coronavirus during a rally in the southern city of Basra on February 25, 2020. Photo: Huseein Faleh / AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraq's Minister of Foreign Affairs has ordered embassies in seven mostly Asian coronavirus-hit countries not to issue visas for entry into Iraq, amid fears of a full-blown outbreak in the country.
The visa suspension applies to China, Iran, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand,according to a statement issued Wednesday by ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson Ahmad al-Sahaf.
Diplomatic mission staff, official delegation members, and Iraqis residing in these countries will be exempt from the ban. However, they will have to undergo medical checks upon entry to Iraq.
The first recorded incidence of coronavirus was in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019. The virus has since spread to 34 countries, killing over 2,600 people – the vast majority in China.
Outbreak in the Middle East has been most lethal in Iran, where 15 people have so far been confirmed killed by the virus – the largest death toll from the disease outside of China.
Cases in other Middle Eastern countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon and Oman have come from arrivals from Iran.
Iraq’s health ministry confirmed its first case, an Iranian student of religion, in the holy city of Najaf on Monday. Four more cases of the disease, all from one family from Kirkuk who had returned from a trip to Iran, were confirmed on Tuesday.
Kurdistan Region officials said Tuesday that no cases of the disease had been recorded in areas under their control. However, they announced restrictions on free movement between Iraqi and Kurdistan Region provinces to limit spread of the disease. Educational institutions in the Region have also been ordered shut.
The visa suspension applies to China, Iran, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand,according to a statement issued Wednesday by ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson Ahmad al-Sahaf.
Diplomatic mission staff, official delegation members, and Iraqis residing in these countries will be exempt from the ban. However, they will have to undergo medical checks upon entry to Iraq.
The first recorded incidence of coronavirus was in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019. The virus has since spread to 34 countries, killing over 2,600 people – the vast majority in China.
Outbreak in the Middle East has been most lethal in Iran, where 15 people have so far been confirmed killed by the virus – the largest death toll from the disease outside of China.
Cases in other Middle Eastern countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon and Oman have come from arrivals from Iran.
Iraq’s health ministry confirmed its first case, an Iranian student of religion, in the holy city of Najaf on Monday. Four more cases of the disease, all from one family from Kirkuk who had returned from a trip to Iran, were confirmed on Tuesday.
Kurdistan Region officials said Tuesday that no cases of the disease had been recorded in areas under their control. However, they announced restrictions on free movement between Iraqi and Kurdistan Region provinces to limit spread of the disease. Educational institutions in the Region have also been ordered shut.