BAGHDAD, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Iraq on Tuesday witnessed a noticeable increase in COVID-19 infections, as the Iraqi Health Ministry confirmed 6,487 new cases, the highest record in the past months.

This raised the nationwide caseload to 2,125,266, while the death toll from the virus rose by 10 to 24,262, the ministry said in a statement.

A total of 58,005 people were vaccinated against COVID-19 in the past 24 hours across the country, bringing the total number of doses administered to 8,932,414, it said.

Since the start of 2022, the ministry has reported continued increases in COVID-19 infections in Iraq since Jan. 8, when only 316 daily cases were registered.

On Jan. 6, Iraq reported its first five cases of Omicron variant in Duhok province among travelers who arrived earlier from outside Iraq, in addition to a number of cases among foreign diplomats in Baghdad.

The Iraqi authorities decided on Jan. 12 to ramp up health restrictions in the country, requiring all Iraqi and foreign travelers entering the country to present a COVID-19 vaccination card of at least two vaccine shots and a negative nucleic acid test result conducted within 72 hours.

Among other decisions, the Iraqi committee dealing with the pandemic urged all Iraqi governmental and non-governmental institutions to follow up their employees' vaccination process and prevent any citizen without a vaccination card from entering their facilities.

Iraq has been pushing forward its vaccination drive since the drug authority approved in January the emergency use of China's Sinopharm vaccine and other COVID-19 vaccines.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in 2020, the Chinese government has sent several batches of medical aid to Iraq and donated four shipments of Sinopharm vaccines to help fight the pandemic. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)