ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq’s health ministry said on Tuesday afternoon that its laboratories “have confirmed the recovery of 15 people who were infected with coronavirus”.
Eleven people in Baghdad and four in Kirkuk have recovered from the virus, it said in a statement.
Two people died and six more infections were confirmed on Sunday, according to Iraq's Ministry of Health.
Saif Al-Bader, spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Environment, said the six cases confirmed Sunday were detected in Muthanna, Anbar, Dhi Qar, Najaf, Baghdad, and Maysan.
This was followed on Monday with three new infections in the Kurdistan Region, and another one on Tuesday in Sulaimani.
Some 154 people have been tested for the virus in the last 24 hours, Saman Barzanji, health minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), told a press conference in Erbil late on Tuesday.
Of that number, one person was found to be infected.
The new case is a 64-year-old man who lives in Koya, Erbil province. He is a relative of the 19-year-old student who tested positive in Erbil on Monday.
The total number of the confirmed cases in the Kurdistan Region now stands 16, including one individual who has died and one who has recovered.
Kurdish and Iraqi authorities have taken strict measures to prevent any further outbreak 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 these 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 100 countries and territories, infecting at least 116,000 people worldwide and killing more than 4,000.
Last updated 11.20 pm
