Two dead and six more infected with coronavirus in Iraq: Health Ministry

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Two more people have died and six have been infected with coronavirus across Iraq, the Ministry of Health announced on Sunday.

"The Ministry of Health and Environment confirms the death of two other cases of people infected with the coronavirus, one in Maysan and the other in Babel," the ministry announced in a statement.

"The Ministry has taken all the required procedures  according to global health regulations to deal with cases," the statement read, adding that that the ministry will provide "the required medical services."

Saif Al-Bader, spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Environment separately announced six more new cases of coronavirus in the provinces of Muthanna, Anbar, Dhi Qar, Najaf, Baghdad and Maysan, bringing the total number of the cases across the country, including the Kurdistan Region to 61. 

The total confirmed cases in the Kurdistan Region have, as of Sunday, reached 10 including, eight cases in Sulaimani and two in Erbil. One man in Sulaimani died from the virus last week.

Kurdish and Iraqi authorities have taken strict measures to prevent any further outbreak of the epidemic in the country by closing down major public places and banning travel to and from neighboring Iran and some other European countries inducing Italy and France as well as mainland China. 

Iraqi citizens returning from the aforementioned countries are  required to spend two weeks in quarantine before they are permitted to return home.

First detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019, the novel coronavirus has since spread to at least 56 countries and territories, infecting at least 100,000 people worldwide and killing more than 3,400.