BAGHDAD: Iraq recorded a new high of 5,663 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, health officials said, nearly two weeks since the visit of Pope Francis to the country.
The number of Iraqis infected since the Covid-19 pandemic began now stands at over 768,000 including 13,827 deaths, with 33 of those in the past 24 hours, according to health ministry figures Wednesday.
Health officials carry out some 40,000 tests every day, in a population of 40 million people.
Despite the rise, the government said it was easing restrictions aimed to stem the spread of coronavirus, including partially lifting a curfew.
Pope Francis toured Iraq from March 5-8, celebrating prayers with crowds of faithful, including in a stadium filled with thousands of worshippers in Irbil.
As is common across Iraq, few among the crowds wore masks — and the recent introduction of a fine has made little difference to that.
Numbers of cases in Iraq have fluctuated over the months, peaking in September at around 5,000 new cases per day, dropping to around 800 cases a day in December, then rising in late February to over 4,000.
Iraq suffers from a chronic shortages of drugs and medical care, and those patients who can often prefer to source oxygen tanks for treatment at home, rather than go to overcrowded and run-down hospitals.
Baghdad has received only 50,000 vaccines, China’s Sinopharm jab.
While the government boasts of plans to purchase 16 million doses, parliament has still not voted on the 2021 budget.
Iraq records new surge in COVID-19 cases
https://arab.news/v2wpx
Iraq records new surge in COVID-19 cases
- Despite the rise, the government said it was easing restrictions aimed to stem the spread of coronavirus, including partially lifting a curfew
- Health officials carry out some 40,000 tests every day, in a population of 40 million people
UN votes to end mission in Yemeni city of Hodeida
- The resolution approved Tuesday, which was sponsored by Britain, stipulates that the UN mission in Hodeida — known as UNMHA — must close as of March 31
UNITED NATIONS, United States: The UN Security Council voted Tuesday to terminate a mission that tried to enforce a ceasefire in war-torn Yemen’s port city of Hodeida.
“Houthi obstructionism has left the mission without a purpose, and it has to close,” said Tammy Bruce of the US delegation, one of 13 on the 15 member council to support ending the mission’s mandate.
The UN mission is now scheduled to conclude in two months.
Yemen’s internationally recognized government is a patchwork of groups held together by their opposition to the Iran-backed Houthis, who ousted them from the capital Sanaa in 2014 and now rule much of the country’s north. They also hold Hodeida.
The Houthis have been at war with the government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition since 2015, in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.
Since 2021 the Houthis have periodically detained UN staffers and still hold some of them.
The resolution approved Tuesday, which was sponsored by Britain, stipulates that the UN mission in Hodeida — known as UNMHA — must close as of March 31. It has been there since 2019.
Russia and China abstained from the vote.
“For six years, UNMHA has served as a critical stabilizing presence” in the region and “actively deterred and prevented a return to full scale conflict,” said Danish representative Christina Markus Lassen.
“The dynamics of the conflict have evolved, and the operating environment has significantly narrowed as UN personnel have become the target of the Houthis’ arbitrary detentions,” Lassen said.
The war in the poorest country in the Arabian peninsula has triggered the worst humanitarian crisis anywhere in the world, the United Nations says.
It expects things to get worse in 2026 as hungry Yemenis find it even harder to get food and international aid drops off.
