Iraq reports 6,188 new COVID-19 cases, 977,175 in total

Iraq reports 6,188 new COVID-19 cases, 977,175 in total
# 19 April 2021 03:11 (UTC +04:00)

The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Sunday 6,188 new coronavirus cases, raising the total nationwide infections to 977,175, APA reports citing Xinhua.

It also reported 33 new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 14,981, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 6,814 to 856,532.

A total of 8,805,486 tests have been carried out across the country since the outbreak of the disease in February 2020, with 37,561 done during the day.

It said that 10,308 people were vaccinated during the past 24 hours across the country, bringing the total number of vaccinated people to 225,993.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Minister of Health Hassan al-Tamimi said in a press release that the ministry will exclusively rely on the names registered on the electronic data platform for the vaccination process.

The platform provides accurate information about who receives the vaccine, and also controls the consumption of vaccines, al-Tamimi said.

"We are also considering issuing a special passport for those vaccinated people if they want to travel aboard without a PCR test," he added.

Iraq has taken a series of measures to curb the recent rise in infections after the health ministry announced on Feb. 15 the detection of a new strain characterized by faster transmission and a higher level of severity.

The Iraqi National Board for Selection of Drugs has approved the emergency use of the Sinopharm vaccines, in addition to AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Sputnik V vaccines.

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

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