Coronavirus Raging Out of Control in Middle East

Date: 09 April 2021 - 22:02

News ID: ۸۸۹۵۷

BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – Iraq’s health ministry has warned of "dire consequences” because citizens are not following coronavirus prevention measures as the country reported a new high in daily infection rates.
Iraq recorded 8,331 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the highest figure since the ministry began keeping records at the onset of the pandemic last year.
That figure was double the number of new infections from last month, and well above the previous peak of some 6,000 in March.
Death rates are still fairly low relative to new infections. At least 14,606 people have died, from a total of 903,439 cases.
The severe spike in case numbers prompted the health ministry to issue a grave warning in a statement on Thursday, saying the rise was due to laxity among Iraqis who flout preventive measures.
Turkey has also posted record daily numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases for the past 10 days, including 55,941 new infections reported late Thursday.
Keen to minimize the pandemic’s repercussions for Turkey’s ailing economy, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eased infection-control measures in early March. The recent spike forced him to announce renewed restrictions, such as weekend lockdowns and the closure of cafes and restaurants during Ramadan, starting on April 13.
Turkish medical groups say the reopening in March was premature and that the new measures won’t go far enough to curb the surge. They have called for a full lockdown during the holy Muslim month.
"Every single day the number of cases is increasing. Every single day the number of deaths is increasing. The alarm bells are ringing for the intensive care units,” Ismail Cinel, head of the Turkish Intensive Care Association, said.
The Health Ministry has said that around 75 percent of the recent infections in Turkey involve the more contagious variant first identified in Britain.
Meanwhile, Qatar announced tighter COVID-19-related restrictions amidst a rising number of cases in the last few weeks.
The measures, announced in a cabinet statement on Wednesday, came into effect on Friday as the country battles a surge in new COVID-19 infections.
On Wednesday, the country reported 940 new cases, taking the total number of positive cases to more than 186,000 since the start of the pandemic.
The circulation of coronavirus variants first identified in the UK and South Africa has contributed to the spread of COVID-19, according to Abdullatif Al Khal, the deputy chief medical officer of Hamad Medical Corporation.
The UAE has also recorded 1,875 new coronavirus cases after conducting 244,357 tests, state news agency WAM reported.
The total number of infections in the country now stands at 480,006 since the pandemic began, the health ministry said.
It added that three people died from coronavirus complications, raising the number of fatalities to 1,526.