Iraq
Passengers wearing protective masks wait for flights at Baghdad International Airport in June 2020. File photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraq has lifted a coronavirus-related travel ban it had placed on some 21 countries, state media reported on Friday.
"The Iraqi National Supreme Health and Safety Committee cancels the decision regarding traveling to and arriving from certain countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” state media said.
The committee decided that people travelling to or from Iraq must show a negative PCR test from hospitals or medical laboratories that is less than 72 hours old. Additionally, people travelling to Iraq from the blacklisted countries must self-quarantine for 14 days.
In December, as a new UK variant of the coronavirus began to spread, Iraq issued a ban on travel to and from eight of the worst impacted countries. The ban was expanded in mid-January to include 21 countries.
However, the restrictions were not enough to prevent the entry of coronavirus variants, with cases of the UK variant in Iraq recorded in mid-Feburary.
Iraq saw its highest-ever daily number of coronavirus cases on March 3, with 5,173 cases recorded by the country's health ministry in 24 hours.
Travel between Iraqi provinces remains restricted, as does travel from Iraq to its Kurdistan Region.
Iraq has recorded 719,121 coronavirus cases, including 65,149 recoveries and 13,537 deaths, since the start of the pandemic, according to the health ministry.
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