BAGHDAD, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi health ministry on Friday reported a record 1,006 new daily COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections in the country to 9,846.
The new cases were 528 in the capital Baghdad, 96 in Basra, 87 in Sulaimaniyah, 50 in Dhi Qar, 48 in Babil, 42 in Wasit, 31 in Karbala, 28 in Kirkuk, 24 in Diwaniyah, 21 in Najaf, 13 in Muthanna, 12 in Erbil, 11 in Maysan, six in Duhok, five in Salahudin, three in Diyala and one in Nineveh, the ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, 14 more died from the coronavirus during the day, 10 of whom were in Baghdad's hospitals, bringing the death toll to 285, according to the statement.
The new cases were detected after 9,642 testing kits were used across the country during the past 24 hours. A total of 281,901 tests have been carried out since the outbreak of the disease in Iraq.
In a separate statement, Deputy Health Minister Hazim al-Jumaili re-affirmed the need to abide by the anti-coronavirus measures including stopping gatherings, maintaining social distancing and wearing masks.
He said the Higher Committee for Health and National Safety will decide later whether to keep the full curfew or return to partial curfew.
"The purpose of the curfew is to achieve three goals; social distancing, reducing the movement of citizens, and facilitating the work of medical teams," al-Jumaili noted.
The latest increase in infections is a result of the non-compliance with the restrictions, he said.
The Iraqi authorities imposed a week-long curfew from May 31 to June 6 after a meeting of the Higher Committee for Health and National Safety headed by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
The committee ordered the security forces to tighten the health restrictions by preventing all gatherings that could lead to the spread of the deadly virus.
China has been helping Iraq fight the COVID-19 pandemic, through enhancing Iraq's capability of containing the spread of the contagious respiratory disease.
From March 7 to April 26, a Chinese team of seven medical experts spent 50 days in Iraq to help fight the disease, during which they helped build a PCR lab and an advanced CT scanner in Baghdad.
Since March 7, China has sent three batches of medical aid to Iraq. Enditem
