Iraq extends partial curfew to Aug. 15 as daily COVID-19 cases hit 3,325
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E-mail Xinhua, August 9, 2020
BAGHDAD, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Iraq on Saturday extended the partial curfew to Aug. 15 as the health ministry reported 3,325 new COVID-19 cases in the country.
However, the full curfew will be imposed on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, while the extended partial curfew runs from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., accoding to a statement by the Higher Committee for Health and National Safety headed by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
The committee also decided to permit only 25 percent of employees to work in government institutions.
In a separate statement, Health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi warned of the increasing COVID-19 infections "because of the citizens' lack of commitment to the ministry's instructions."
"The recent increase in the number of infections is due to the visits by the citizens that violate the preventive measures, particularly during the Eid al-Adha holiday," said Riyadh Abdul-Amir, head of the ministry's public health department, in a press release.
The increase in infections could go beyond the hospital's capacity and affect the recently declined death rate of the pandemic, he added.
The new 3,325 cases has brought the total nationwide infections to 147,389, as the ministry's health teams and institutions used 17,125 testing kits across the country during the day, raising the total testing kits used so far to 1,127,383, the ministry said in a statement.
It also reported 74 more fatalities, raising the death toll to 5,310, while 2,307 more patients recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 105,504.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Iraq has been taking measures to contain the pandemic.
On July 26, Iraq's Higher Committee for Health and National Safety decided to extend the weekly full curfew from July 30 to Aug. 9, including the Eid al-Adha holiday.
China has been helping Iraq fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
From March 7 to April 26, a Chinese team of seven medical experts spent 50 days in Iraq to help contain the disease, during which they helped build a PCR lab and install an advanced CT scanner in Baghdad.
Since March 7, China has also sent three batches of medical aid to Iraq. Enditem
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