BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – Iraq has recorded its highest single-day rise in COVID-19 cases since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, prompting authorities to warn hospitals may "lose control” in the coming days.
According to the Iraqi health ministry, 5,036 new coronavirus infections were confirmed within 24 hours on Friday, bringing the total number of cases across the country to 252,075, of which 7,359 had died.
The health ministry said the spike took place because people ignore recommended safety measures, including mask-wearing or social distancing.
"The number of cases is expected to escalate further in the coming days, which we fear will lead our health institutions to lose control as they try to deal with these large numbers,” the Iraqi health ministry statement said on Friday.
"This will lead to an increase in the number of deaths, after we made headway in reducing them over the past few weeks.”
Iraq’s hospitals have already been worn down by decades of conflict and poor investment, with shortages in medicines, hospital beds and even protective equipment for doctors.
"The country is already in a semi-lockdown. There is a partial curfew,” Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Baghdad, said on Saturday.
"Twenty-five percent of government employees are allowed to go to work. Schools are still not reopening until probably the end of October.”
Meanwhile, Turkey’s intensive care unit occupancy rate reached 68 percent due to novel coronavirus, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.
The bed occupancy rate across Turkey is 51 percent, the minister told reporters at a press conference in southeastern Diyarbakir city.
Turkey confirmed 1,612 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, raising the total diagnosed patients to 276,555, the Turkish Health Ministry announced.
Meanwhile, 53 people died in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 6,564, according to data shared by the ministry.
Turkish health professionals conducted 117,113 tests in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall number of tests to 7,583,200.