BAGHDAD, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi authorities sent the first flight on Monday to evacuate citizens stranded in India after the new double mutant variant of the coronavirus was identified in this country, said a statement by the Ministry of Transportation.

According to the statement, the authorities have taken all protective measures to ensure the safety of crews and travelers, preventing the transmission of the pandemic.

More emergency evacuation flights will be arranged by Iraqi Airways and medical teams at Baghdad airport will carry out tests and quarantine measures for the evacuees, the statement said.

On April 27, Iraqi Airways announced that it had canceled all direct flights to India until further notice.

Meanwhile, a statement by the Iraqi Ministry of Health reported 5,068 new coronavirus cases during the past 24 hours, raising the total nationwide number to 1,079,998.

It also reported 30 new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 15,566, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 7,351 to 964,551.

A total of 9,445,914 tests have been carried out across the country since the outbreak of the disease in February 2020, with 37,780 done during the day.

A total of 18,777 people were vaccinated against the COVID-19 during the past 24 hours across the country, bringing the total number of doses received to 376,347.

Iraq has taken a series of measures to curb the recent rise in coronavirus infections. The Iraqi National Board for Selection of Drugs has approved the emergency use of China's Sinopharm vaccines, in addition to AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Sputnik V vaccines.

Since the early stage of the pandemic in 2020, the Chinese government has sent medical aid to Iraq and donated two shipments of Sinopharm vaccines to the country to help combat the pandemic. Enditem

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