KRG health ministry urges people to get tested for coronavirus

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) health ministry has urged people with symptoms of the coronavirus or have been in close contact with someone infected to get tested, after it said on Sunday that the Kurdistan Region had registered 926 new cases in 24 hours.

Early detection of the virus is of critical importance, read the health ministry statement released Monday.

To encourage people to get tested, "a proposal for lowering the price of coronavirus PCR test in both public and governmental hospitals is ready and will be discussed today or tomorrow," KRG health minister Saman Barzanji told Rudaw's Sangar Abdulrahman on Monday.

Slowing down the spread of the virus will help provide better patient treatment and decrease the rate of death, Barzanji said.

The Kurdistan Region has seen a steady increase in daily new infections since mid-February. New rules and restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus were announced before the Newroz holiday, but were largely ignored by the public.

Erbil province's coronavirus crisis cell warned on Sunday that it would impose a complete lockdown for the sake of public health if residents did not adhere to health guidelines.

Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani has expressed concern over the surge in COVID-19 cases across the Region.

"This is not the time for complacency or politics," the premier said on Twitter on Monday. "Our health sector is being tested again."

Omed Ahmad, a doctor treating coronavirus patients in Duhok, said he was seeing young and healthy people being hit hard by the virus.

"Patients of a young age with no underlying issues are laying in the intensive care unit (ICU)... being healthy and not having diabetes or hypertension is not a standard of how bad your situation can get once infected," Ahmed told Rudaw.

The KRG's education ministry has ordered that schools stay closed until April 8, except for Grade 12 students. The extended closure has been criticized by the Kurdistan Teachers' Union.

Since the start of the pandemic, the Kurdistan Region has registered 119,480 cases, 108,483 recoveries and 3,643 deaths, according to the latest data from the KRG health ministry.