COVID-19 intrudes all homes of Iraq's Sulaymaniyah

BAGHDAD

The novel coronavirus has spread across all homes of northern Iraq's Sulaymaniyah province, making efforts to stem the outbreak ineffective, the governor of the province said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a news conference, Haval Abu Bakr said: "There is no house in Sulaymaniyah in which no infection was recorded, and if there is any house with no infection, this would be a rare case."

The governor called for spreading awareness among people and strengthen health services at this critical stage.

"We believe that the curfew or social isolation at this current stage will not benefit us anything, because the pandemic has swept through homes and residences after it was in the streets," he said.

For his part, Hersh Sayed Selim, the deputy director of the governorate's health facility, said Sulaymaniyah has so far reported 16,843 infections, including 953 deaths and 10,489 recoveries.

On Tuesday, the total number of infections in the Kurdish region reached 51,870 cases, including 1,877 deaths, and 32,746 recoveries.

Iraq's total COVID-19 infections climbed to 391,044, including 9,604 deaths, and 319,784 recoveries, according to the country's Health Ministry.

* Bassel Barakat contributed to this report from Ankara.